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Former Sanofi Rep Excluded From Healthcare Programs For Sample Scheme

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Posted 8/21/2013 at 7:38 AM by Ed Silverman

Last December, Sanofi agreed to pay $109 million to resolve kickback charges that free samples of its Hyalgan injectable knee medication were used to induce physicians to prescribe the treatment. Basically, Sanofi reps doled out extra samples that doctors would use to lower their average purchase costs and then make a profit by overbilling Medicare and Medicaid, among other programs (here is the US Justice Department statement).

Sanofi hatched this scheme, which was revealed in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former sales rep, in order to avoid an old-fashioned price war, according to the feds. But like so many other instances in recent years in which a big drugmaker settled charges of illegally overbilling federal healthcare programs or marketing a drug for unapproved uses, the news of the settlement quickly disappeared from view.

There was, however, some interesting fallout that never made any radar screens at all – a different former Sanofi sales rep, Thomas Valentine, was excluded from doing business with federal healthcare programs for five years, according to an exclusion agreement that was finalized two months ago with the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Health & Human Services.

The agreement, which Pharmalot obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, notes that Valentine participated in the sample scheme from 2006 through 2009. No other Sanofi (SNY) employee was excluded from doing business with Medicare or Medicaid or other healthcare programs, a Sanofi spokesman says, although OIG reserved the right to pursue additional exclusions against others (here is the settlement agreement with Sanofi).

Valentine could not be reached for comment.

The agreement apparently marks a rare instance in which a pharmaceutical sales rep has been excluded from participating in federal healthcare programs. An OIG spokesman was unable to provide other examples in which a sales rep has been excluded – if any ever occurred - because, he explained, the agency does not track such information.

Exclusions, for those unaware, make it virtually impossible for anyone to maintain an uninterrupted career in the pharmaceutical industry. For this reason, there has been criticism of the HHS for not pursuing such punishments against pharma executives, in particular, given the plethora of cases in recent years in which so many of the largest drugmakers defrauded the federal government.

To what extent the exclusion agreement with Valentine will serve as a warning to other sales reps remains unclear, since the penalty had not been publicized. Moreover, it also remains uncertain whether the exclusion will have an effect on higher-ranking industry employees. The whistleblower lawsuit noted the sample scheme was pushed by managers, but only Valentine was excluded.
 






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