The US government is filing a law suit against the drug company, Novartis, for giving $65 million kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists to prescribe Lotrel, Valturna, Starlix, and Myfortis over the past decade. These kickbacks were in the form of dinners at high end restaurants, cash, rebates, and discounts.
One extreme example is from a six person oncology group that received $2.9 million in kickbacks in just one year! It is a huge conflict of interest that is common practice for many oncologists to make in excess of a hundred thousand dollars a year in drug company rebates for using their drugs. Many of these profits involve Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA hospital system.
