File another one under Medical Ethics. (spit, cough, gag and retch)
Bloomberg
By Margaret Cronin Fisk
and Jef Feeley
November 17, 2017, 5:00 AM EST Updated on November 17, 2017, 9:17 AM EST
[excerpt]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-17/astrazeneca-in-talks-to-settle-texas-lawsuit-over-sales-tacticsAstraZeneca Plc is in talks to settle a Texas lawsuit claiming that the company fleeced the state’s Medicaid program by fraudulently marketing one of its top drugs, according to court filings.
Texas sued the drugmaker in 2013, saying AstraZeneca had targeted the state’s Medicaid program by urging doctors to prescribe the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel for unauthorized treatments -- particularly for children -- over six years.
While doctors have wide discretion to prescribe drugs beyond what they’ve been approved to treat, drugmakers are forbidden from marketing them for off-label uses. By 2013, AstraZeneca had already agreed to pay almost $600 million in a pair of settlements over claims related to Seroquel’s marketing.
