Amgen Whistleblower: ‘Wearing A Wire Was Stressful’

From November 1990 to December 2005, Jill Osciecki was a sales representative for Amgen , mostly in the Midwestern US, where she promoted the Aranesp medicine that is used to treat anemia caused by chemotherapy and chronic kidney disease. However, she was one of a handful of Amgen reps who eventually chafed at allegedly illegal marketing tactics that have now become a familiar refrain in the lore of pharmaceutical marketing over the past two decades. Last month, the biotech paid $762 million to settle civil and criminal charges of off-label marketing and paying kickbacks (back story). The US Department of Justice found these practices induced physicians to use Amgen (AMGN) medications unnecessarily when lower-cost alternatives were available, causing federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to overpay. We spoke with Osciecki, who wore a wire during numerous meetings with her former Amgen colleagues, about her experience and why she decided to go to the feds… Pharmalot: What prompted you to become a whistleblower? Osciecki: I didn’t understand all the ins and outs of a qui tam or whistleblower lawsuit. I’d actually gone to the government first to report this activity before I filed this lawsuit. But the morale at the company was extremely low. My morale was low. People were being fired all over the place. This was in 2004. The culture had changed very dramatically after a managerial change. Amgen had been the kind of place where people loved to come...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Amgen Anemia Aranesp Epogen JJ Johnson & Johnnson Procrit Whistleblower Source Type: blogs