#eurppe

[pgreen37]

[almeriatourism]

#ovens #lucainenadelastorres #pueblosmasbonitosdeespaña #almeria #andalusia #spain #eurppe #world

[photofromafar-blog]

[let-theoceandrain]

[deniscollins]

As a marketing manager for a medical device and pharmaceutical company, would you support a plan to provide some doctors with cash reimbursements if they purchased your product?

A wide-ranging government investigation of corrupt overseas marketing practices by drug and device makers scored its first major victory Friday when Johnson & Johnson admitted bribing European doctors and agreed to pay $70 million in civil and criminal fines.

Also on Friday, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $7.9 million to settle bribery allegations with the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. And it admitted as part of its deferred prosecution agreement with the United States government to having paid kickbacks to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein under a United Nations oil-for-food program that investigations have since found was rife with fraud.

According to a criminal complaint here and a case summary in Britain, Johnson & Johnson undertook an elaborate scheme to pay about 20 percent of the price of the company’s devices to Greek surgeons.

Intriguingly, prosecutors said that Johnson & Johnson had provided “significant assistance” in their investigation of others in the industry, resulting in a reduced criminal fine for the health conglomerate. At least a dozen other major drug and device makers are under investigation for similar crimes.

A criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department against a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that makes knee and hip implants quoted internal company e-mails as stating that providing “cash incentives to surgeons is common knowledge in Greece,” and that, were the company to stop paying bribes, “we’d lose 95% of our business by the end of the year.”

In a written statement, the company said that it originally reported its illegal marketing activities to the government in 2007. “We are deeply disappointed by the unacceptable conduct that led to these violations,” said William C. Weldon, the company’s chairman and chief executive. Indeed, Johnson and Johnson’s admission appeared to have set off the industrywide inquiry.

Officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission said that Johnson & Johnson’s bribes might have harmed public health in several European countries. For years, the company tried to hide its illegal activities by “using sham contracts, off-shore companies and slush funds to cover its tracks,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of enforcement.

The company also paid bribes to Polish doctors and administrators who served on hospital committees that made purchasing decisions for medical equipment. Some of the bribes included paying for travel arrangements for doctors to attend medical conferences, a common practice throughout the industry. The company also bribed doctors in Romania who prescribed the company’s drugs.