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Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 2:44 am
by 1eye
Motiak wrote:5 million for being a whistleblower. I'm in the wrong line of work.
Just imagine the $ you could get by providing evidence of wrongdoing in the approval of these drugs in the first place. "Those guys can get all them bucks for Copaxone and Avonex, we should get in on some of that! How many doctors do we have to pay off?"
8)

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 4:17 am
by bestadmom
My hunch is this is the tip on the iceberg. It was easy for June Halper and Dr. Bowling to pull this off and it lasted several years. Halper created the model. Greedy thieves. They have no professional credibility.

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 8:13 am
by 1eye
Aren't MD's concerned about their reputations, collectively? Is it possible using access to information laws to get at this information? It cannot be redacted for national security reasons. I think the public needs to know who is betraying their trust, as the safety and health of real people is involved, and where does one draw the line? Would you bring your spouse, kids, parents to a doctor who was known to accept bribes? Bribes worth many thousands of times the value of a single prescription or a single dose? Does the public somehow not deserve to know this information, because Medicare pays for it, and that's just taxes, and everybody pays, and everybody knows the government spends more than they should, and hey, at least Serono is paying the penalty, aren't they?

It's the intangibles, the reputations of other doctors, the trust people have to lose in medicine in general. How does Serono make up for that? OK, so I'm not the least biased person to consult on the subject, but if I were given the opportunity to go back to the day I accepted my first Rebif prescription, knowing what I do now, I would not even think about it. Come to think of it, that's why I had so much confidence in my (then) neurologist.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:46 am
by 1eye
In my view, the fact that the same doctors are involved in the CMSC as in the Amato case, as in the original research that led to FDA approval of this drug, which has been called into serious question by studies in the UK, means that the whole FDA approval proceeding is suspect. The suspicion is a result of Serono's obvious disregard for the rules, for honesty, truth, efficiency of government spending, reputations of professionals, safety and well-being of patients, and in at least one case, for their own employees. It seems anything goes, and if I were in charge of a foreign government's approval of drugs, I would not so easily apply a rubber stamp to anything the FDA does from now on. Uncle Sam's slip is showing.

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 12:35 pm
by 1eye
It's also exemplary behaviour of the American justice system. Teaches young people about integrity, that justice is blind (but is it double blinded?), honesty pays, cheaters don't prosper, you know, all those outdated ideas that went out the window years ago.

We should have PhD programs in Out-Of-Court. We should teach Kickbacks in grade school. We need to get with the times!

Re: Serono Lawsuit

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 4:02 pm
by 1eye
Johnnymac wrote:Cheerleader posted this in a thread on the general forum, but not sure how many folks actually read anything but the CCSVI area, so wanted to put a link to it here:

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-16474.html

The big business of MS is a huge burden in the progress of CCSVI as a condition, its testing and associated corrective procedure. There needs to be more Tim Amato's out there doing the right thing and bringing to light the underhanded changing of money between pharma companies and doctors who are caring for patients.

I know these forums are read by many people in the industry. If you able to bring to light these types of unscrupulous behaviors, I implore you to do so. This goes far beyond MS, CCSVI and our own little world in the medical community.
I agree. Far beyond 'MS', or 'ThisIsMS', and beyond Serono's headquarters or the corridors of US justice. I noticed that Cheerleader's note about the "deal with the FEDs" has been suppressed by lawyer threats. It also seems the Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada is not passing the story on to its readers, regardless of whether they depend on it for information about pharma companies.

Maybe people with Rebif prescriptions need to wonder how much their doctor got for writing them? Maybe their insurance companies need to start wondering that, too. Maybe insurance companies need to start wondering how much doctors got to prescribe all those expensive injections they have already paid billions for. Maybe those people who get it through government assistance need to start wondering just who is being assisted.

missing news: is it being suppressed?

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 5:44 am
by 1eye
A little googling (that's a verb, right?) of this story is revealing. It seems to have broken after the Canadian Election, but only in the US. Canadian Press had the story early on. If you search using four words "serono globe and mail", you get a story, in the globe, but it's the Boston Globe. It appears to have been newsworthy in some cities in the US. Canada? Maybe not.

It still has never appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto. If we don't watch out, this lack of news may make the news.

5 days ago

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 6:02 am
by 1eye
This is what the Boston Globe had, 5 days ago
Around the Region
May 05, 2011|By Globe Staff

EMD Serono Inc., a biopharmaceutical company with operations in Rockland, said yesterday that it has resolved a civil matter led by the US attorney’s office in Maryland concerning fees paid to physicians for speaking and consulting on behalf of one of its drugs.

As part of the settlement, EMD Serono agreed to make a payment of $44.3 million. In a press release, EMD Serono said it has not, as a part of this settlement, admitted any improper conduct.

The drug in question was Rebif, a treatment for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.

According to the US attorney’s office in Maryland, the settlement resolves allegations that between Jan. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2009, Serono paid health care providers to induce them to promote or prescribe Rebif.

EMD Serono said because a financial provision for the settlement taken in 2009 was sufficient, the settlement won’t affect 2011 earnings. EMD Serono is an affiliate of Merck KGaA, a German pharmaceutical and chemical company.
Maybe it's ok for Canadian papers to sit on the story till 2012, since 2011 earnings aren't affected. Yeah, let's go with that.

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 6:04 am
by bestadmom
And it gets worse. Joan was hit with a cease and desist by the CMSC lawyers about her facebook post.

MS ms charity wants money laundering allegation scrubbed from facebook
<shortened url>

How do they get away with things like this without the slightest slap on the wrist? It's too late. The cat is out of the bag. Call it what you want. They are greedy thieves.

Defense against uncivil civil lawyers

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 6:15 am
by 1eye
Sounds like somebody has targeted our own cheerleader. Maybe this forum needs to start a civil defense fund?

censorship is real

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 6:46 am
by 1eye
I have a notion what these folks are up to. They're trying to remove the organization CMSC from the whole thing, by suppressing Cheerleader's statements in this forum and on Facebook. It looks like that's why they wanted to remove the link to the law case, too. The whole thing looks like the best suppression of information from the public that money can buy.

You may expect this posting to be removed soon too I guess.

CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.CMSC.

There. The public has a right to hear it once. Lenny Bruce said that.

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 7:01 am
by 1eye
Most of those exhibits (remember, B to P) say something like: "on <date> Serono presented CMSC with a check" and then the amount. Half a million, no problem. Cost of doing business. Why did the CMSC handle so many checks for kickbacks for prescriptions? Perhaps because they were all to doctors? Who were they? Do they still prescribe? Can I maybe get some cocaine or speed? I know it's expensive, but we're just dickering, right?

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 7:17 am
by HappyPoet
I removed my post.

:)

Re: Serono Lawsuit

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 7:17 am
by griff
Johnnymac wrote: The big business of MS is a huge burden in the progress of CCSVI as a condition, its testing and associated corrective procedure. There needs to be more Tim Amato's out there doing the right thing and bringing to light the underhanded changing of money between pharma companies and doctors who are caring for patients.
I do not know the situation in the US, but some doctors told me how it works in some European countries. In some countries here it is an old custom that doctors working for sate owned hospitals get money (as a tip) from their patients under the table. so, their net worth can not be fully justified by taxed incomes. Pharma companies know that and they blackmail doctors if they are too much against them. That is one of the reasons why neuros turned back from CCSVI here.

The other thing is that pharma companies pay the exotic trips of doctors here as a 'study tour'. You can imagine the Bahamas, Thailand as a medical conference hot spots. Nice girls in bikinis giving massage while you are contemplating on the cause of medical problems.:) So no conspiracy is needed, this is business as usual. :) This is how big corporations work.

more paranoia

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 7:43 am
by 1eye
You don't suppose they have any radioactive isotopes in that hospital?

I've sent copies of my postings at TiMS to Dr. Duncan, my brother, the NDPer, my other brother the lawyer in New York, and Cece, one of the TiMS posters. Check out the Serono lawsuit discussion on the Serono lawsuit thread of the CCSVI forum on TiMS (if it's still there). Do not depend on hyperlinks. Make liberal use of cut and paste.

I hope the Internet continues to be our friend. If anything happens to me or my family, you'll know why.

I hope they don't get violent. You'll help with the screenplay, won't you?

On 5/10/2011 10:56 AM, Facebook wrote:
> facebook
> Hi,
> xxxx commented on your note "".
> xxxx wrote: "Ever see the movie Silkwood starring Meryl Streep? CRAZY!"

***************************
The lawsuit document is a pdf, bitmapped so cut and paste will not work. http://freepdfhosting.com/543bcc781b.pdf Someone more industrious than I could always type it in.