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This excerpt taken from the ELN 6-K filed Sep 29, 2009. United States.
In addition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal laws have been applied to restrict some marketing practices in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. These laws include anti-kickback statutes and false claims
statutes.
The federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration to induce or in return for, purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid
or other federally financed healthcare programs. This statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on one hand, and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other. Although there are a number of statutory exemptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting some common activities from prosecution, the exemptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be
subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exemption or safe harbor. Our practices may not in all cases meet all of the criteria for safe harbor protection from anti-kickback liability.
Federal false claims laws prohibit any person from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to get a false claim paid. In recent years, many pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under
these laws for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. Additionally, other pharmaceutical companies have settled charges under the federal False Claims Act, and related state laws, relating to off-label promotion. The majority of states also have statutes or regulations similar to the federal anti-kickback law and false claims laws, which apply to items, and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or,
in several states, apply regardless of the payer. Sanctions under these federal and state laws may include civil monetary penalties, exclusion of a manufacturer’s products from reimbursement under government programs, criminal fines, and imprisonment.
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