LONDON (Alliance News) - UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC has agreed to a USD105 million settlement covering 44 US states over allegations that it unlawfully promoted its asthma treatment Advair and antidepressants Paxil and Wellburtin.
As part of the settlement, announced on Wednesday by California attorney general Kamala Harris, Glaxo is required to continue its Patient First Program through to at least March 2019, amongst other stipulations such as a requirement that scientifically trained personnel must be ultimately responsible for developing and approving responses to health care provider questions on an unbiased, non-promotional basis.
The Patient First Program reduces the financial incentives for sales representatives, and was brought into Glaxo's US operations in 2011. Following a spate of investigations across its international operations, starting with large scale bribery investigations from Chinese Authorities, Glaxo is implementing a new compensation programme in all countries it operates in by 2015.
The new compensation programme, similar to the Patient First Program, will remove individual sales targets.
"Patient care is undermined when pharmaceutical companies promote uses for drugs that have not been approved by the FDA or pay medical professionals to promote certain drugs," Harris said in a statement. "This settlement requires GSK to pay a significant penalty and imposes strong new rules designed to prevent future misrepresentations of GSK products."
Last Wednesday, the UK's serious fraud office launched an investigation into Glaxo over bribery allegations.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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Glaxosmithkline (GSK)