[SSRI-Research] Turner - Litigation Strategy - Destroy Invented Diseases

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Sun, 28 May 2006 11:42:29 -0400

[sSRI-Research] Turner - Litigation Strategy - Destroy

Invented Diseases

 

 

 

 

Gang, This just in from Barry Turner*. Barry is a lecturer in law

and medical ethics at the University of Lincoln, and a lecturer in

criminal law and evidence at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.

 

He has for the past six years been a consultant in criminal and civil

litigation in the United States and Europe on legal matters concerning

personal injury, securities and federal false claims litigation

particularly to do with the pharmaceutical industry.

 

Based upon what is currently happening in the courts, here is his

recommended legal strategy.

 

Vince

 

* Barry Turner is a member of our group.

 

 

 

*Attorney General of Texas, Greg Abbott, has filed a lawsuit seeking

$250 million, accusing Merck of defrauding Texas citizens by

representing Vioxx as safe when applying for the drug's approval to be

included on the state's list of drugs approved to be covered for

patients on Medicaid.

 

According to the lawsuit's complaint, Merck's failure to disclose the

harmful effects of Vioxx, while offering it to the state's Medicaid

program as a safe painkiller, violates the Texas Medicaid Fraud

Prevention Act and the Texas Medicaid program reimbursed pharmacists

$56 million for Vioxx prescriptions over a five-year period.

 

In another case, on March 31, 2006, a New Jersey court of appeals

upheld a class action lawsuit against Merck filed by private insurers

and HMOs, as third-party payors, under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud

Act, to recover losses incurred in purchasing Vioxx for their health

plans.

 

 

I have been advocating for a long time that action should be taken

against big pharma by this route. PI suits may very well be morally

righteous but they will never make this industry change its ways. I

have been involved in qui tam suit strategies already (involving

non-psych drugs) and I take the view that because of the harsh

penalties imposed when these are successful that this is the legal

strategy that will work against these people. It is not that PI suits

are not right for individuals injured by lying and coniving pharma

company's, of course they are. What is at issue is that pharma

company's factor litigation costs into 'research and development and

other costs of sales. It does not hurt them to pay out in damages

what they already budgeted for.

 

The Federal and State False Claims Act actions are different. A drug

company hit by a big one of these wil have to pay out colossal amounts

in fines and damages and these come out of profits. Then the stock

will go down and you can hit them again under Sarbanes Oxley. If

anyone thinks that Sarbanes Oxley is feeble legislation they can

always ask the Enron execs.

 

If I was an American Citizen I would be filing Qui Tam suits right

now. I am available to advise on this subject and strategy for anyone

who wants to know more and will be happy to assist any American

citizen wishing to take this course of action.

 

ADHD is a fraud. It is a fraud in scientific terms and is a criminal

financial fraud against the US taxpayer. Ritalin is a fraud against

the taxpayer. If ADHD does not exist then it is criminally fraudulent

to sell a useless drug to people (children) ,

 

 

Even if ADHD did exist it is epidemiologically unfeasible that the

'pandemic' demonstrated by 'diagnosis and treatment' over the last

twenty years could have happened without an extrinsic cause. For this

to be an actual phenomena there would have to be a cause such a

environmental pollution or a novel virus, either of which would be

detectable. Since the ADHD lobbyists refuse to accept such a

possibility and insist it is genetic in origin then for a pandemic on

this scale it would have been documented for several centuries.

 

I would not dare to estimate the cost to the Medicare and Medicaid

budgets of the ADHD fraud, It will be billions. In qui tam suits the

perpetrators would have to pay back three times the amount they stole.

That would be such a spectacular figure that even the cash rich

pharma industry would be left reeling. Then Sarbanes Oxley could send

to jail those in the industry who new of the fraud and allowed

shareholders to lose such a huge amount of money.

 

The exponential rise in SSRI prescription based on an unscientific and

fraudulent redefining of 'depression' is another area where qui tam

could be used. In fact all non scientific inventions of disease are

fraudulent appropriation of taxpayers money where Medicare and

Medicaid pick up the bill

 

I have spent an great deal of time on this strategy now, if anyone

wants me to come over to the US to assist in its use please let me know.

 

Barry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drug-Free School Zone? Just Say NO to Prozac for Children.