We’ve noticed that Eli Lilly and Co. has been taking pot shots at the 340B program calling for more oversight and transparency.
This from a company that agreed to plead guilty and pay $1.4 billion for promoting its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration including marketing it to elderly patients with dementia. Health care providers serving the poor received $750,000 as part of a related False Claims Act settlement and Lilly is still operating under a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the feds as part of the deal. Two years ago, the company paid $29 million to settle Security and Exchange Commission charges that its subsidiaries bribed government officials in Russia, Brazil, China, and Poland to win millions of dollars of business. A parallel Justice Department investigation is ongoing.
Meanwhile, Lilly executives have been recruiting other drug companies to join the industry-funded AIR 340B campaign. When SNHPA and other 340B provider groups recently called upon HHS Secretary Sebelius to move forward with long-awaited steps to increase transparency such as posting 340B prices and requiring manufacturers to explain how an overcharge occurred, AIR 340B described the recommendations as “a distraction.”
And if that isn’t enough, Eli Lilly devoted much of World Cancer Day (Feb. 4) to make offensive and unfounded comments on 340B and patient care.
Shame on Lilly.
Shame on AIR 340B.
To view a full list of AIR 340B members, click here.