Prior to my retirement, I did a consulting gig with Biogen.
My role was to architect the movement of patient and physician data from Biogen’s systems to an outsourced vendor who provided an application called “MedForce” which managed these physician “educational” dinner events. The vendor would then send back the data about these events back into Biogen’s Compliance systems.
The implementation of this new system was part of Biogen’s need to track and document all of the physician events, who attended, and how much they were paid in “honorarium” fees.
It was a complicated application to implement, but was helpful to Biogen Compliance and Marketing folks who needed to manage this process to ensure that Biogen was monitoring this process.
I guess it was this guy who caused all of the ruckus about this practice at Biogen. He got $266 Million for being a whistleblower - way more than I got for helping put in a system that made sure that this would not happen again…
It is very good that someone with ethics made the big bucks.
I looked at Biogen’s product for psoriasis back around 2000. The list of side effects was horrendous. That was while the list was available to the public. As the drug got wider acceptance the list of side effects for the public was taken away. An endocrinologist recommended the drug a couple of years later. I mentioned the side effects were awful I did not want it. The doctor said yes we are seeing major side effects in my practice using this drug.
The whos who is no longer anything more than a way to market doctors. It used to matter to be the one or two doctors listed in a region. Now any putz with an MD can be on the list. I saw his name on such a list two weeks ago.
A doctor that understands how dangerous new drugs are waits till the drug is on the market for five years before recommending the drug. S/he waits to see if the drug is pulled from the market. The “endocrinologist” is just dangerous.
Biogen I have seen play by their own rules. I side stepped the manure.