Michelle Breitenbach, 38, of Middletown, N.J.
Posted on 05/31/2018 5:43:49 PM PDT by BBell
A former drug company sales rep is facing up to five years in prison after being convicted of bribing New Jersey doctors to prescribe addictive painkillers, the state attorney general said Wednesday.
Michelle Breitenbach, 38, of Middletown, who worked for the pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics Inc., pleaded guilty to the second degree charge of conspiracy to commit bribery, according to NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
(Excerpt) Read more at njbiz.com ...
Michelle Breitenbach, 38, of Middletown, N.J.
Bribe? Hmmmm.... What was the mode of payment?
Pharma sales people are quasi-escorts. Both male and female. There’s a reason they look the way they do...
Male or Female they are called “Detail Men”.
They’re the ones that have the white envelopes with tickets to the Bahamas for that 4 day professional conference on whatever drugs they are pushing.
Nice looking females are sent to see male Doc’s and handsome
guys are sent to female Doc’s.
The accusation was that she gave [doctors who used the new product] bribes disguised as speakers’ fees to appear at events touting the new product.
I am torn, really torn, with only this level of detail. These fees would have needed to be huge, well over what the doctors would have gotten for the equivalent time in private practice. There is a thin line that could be crossed by doing that.
This COULD yet be more government virtue-signaling than anything else. The devil is truly in the details. I have no problem with a powerful painkiller given to top up lesser painkillers in cancer cases — absolutely zero problem. And it sure sounds like this is what the drug had been intended for.
You send the pretty gals and handsome guys — not the dumpy nerds. That’s basic marketing. You want your product to have good associations.
When does it cross over into the unethical? Obviously it can, whether or not it did so in this case. There’s a reason that prescription drugs are also called ethical drugs. Being too free and loose can invite trouble. Being too tight can be cruel. Pro-active coaching of patients would seem to be the best middle road, along with small initial supplies and close evaluation of the patient.
Translation: Sex Sells! :>)
Most decisions on what medications wind up on the formulary, or what devices get purchased, are made by administrators who aren't taking care of patients. The problem is that they tend to make purchases entirely on what is cheapest, and that is sometimes not the best thing for patients.
I'm not saying that there aren't bad unethical doctors, but I assure you that the vast majority are not.
My wife worked for a male doctor years ago. She used to talk about the mini-skirted drug reps pushing their products. The doctor was not influenced by them.
My doctor is constrained in prescribing for me by what my insurance will pay for, regardless of the bribes given by the drug reps.
This has been going on since forever. They’re getting tough now because of all this new “opiate” policy.
Once my pediatrician asked my kid about guns in our house, without us around, that was the end of my confidence in them. They OBVIOUSLY have their own agenda.
Rx company reps all look like this gal. They are eye candy and are quickly tossed to the side when they start to age.
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