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A comment on Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering. Parent comment

Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by trhway on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @03:53AM (#13165494)
(IANAL) it is my understanding that kickbacks from drug companies to doctors are pretty legal in US - or there is a very technical line between legal and illegal kickback in pharma/doctor relationship that regular people like us don't recognize it.

And don't get me wrong, i'm not against sending a bunch of pharma execs to a country club - i just think that so few of them are sent there that situation looks more like politically motivated selective enforcement of the law than full fledged justice.

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Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by danso on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @04:28AM (#13165623)
It is OK for doctors to have financial relationships with companies, for example, to be a paid speaker or consultant. But I don't think those are "kickbacks", and there's a distinction between those relationships and what the Justice Dept. is prosecuting here

https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

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Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by cma on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:50AM (#13166126)
You don't think they often give out speaker roles as kickbacks? Speaking fees are often just bribes. Malcolm Gladwell isn't a doctor, but here's how it works in some cases (pushing amphetamines and tobacco): http://shameproject.com/profile/malcolm-gladwell-2/
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Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by mirimir on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @04:48AM (#13165705)
It's a very subtle one, IMHO.
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Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by 3131s on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @05:08AM (#13165771)
So subtle you might call it a "loophole".
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Re:Pharma Execs Arrested Over Fentanyl Rackateering by mirimir on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:52AM (#13166136)
:)

The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell (Random House, 2004)

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200410073511522

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