Originally Published Med-Tech Precision Spring 2009
FROM THE EDITORS
At Least One Ortho Firm Still Under Scrutiny
A year and a half after settling with the Department of Justice over payments to physicians, Stryker gets subpoenaed by New Jersey’s attorney general for the same allegation.
 |
In 2007, five orthopedics companies settled with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations that they may have paid kickbacks to surgeons in return for favoring their hip and knee implants. Of those five companies—Biomet, Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopedics, Smith & Nephew, Stryker, and Zimmer—Stryker cooperated early and thus avoided the hefty fines paid by the other device manufacturers.
But on May 7, Stryker reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had received a subpoena from the attorney general of New Jersey for the same problems. Stryker says the subpoena requests “various documents related to the financial interests and arrangements of physicians participating in certain clinical trials for or on behalf of the company.”
Stryker says that it is evaluating the scope of the subpoena and its response. The company also notes that New Jersey’s attorney general “reportedly issued similar subpoenas to other major medical device manufacturing companies.”
As the practice of physician payments from manufacturers has come to light, the industry has called for more transparency and stricter guidelines. In December 2008, AdvaMed released a new version of its Code of Conduct. Changes in the code emphasize increased restrictions on promotional items and gifts. They also clarify guidelines for conduct for entering into royalty arrangements and introduce parameters for providing products for educative purposes.
The practice of payments to physicians had become so pervasive that it seemed that some firms felt they had to engage in it to remain competitive, particularly in the orthopedics sector. The settlement with the DOJ certainly should have been sufficient incentive for the companies to avoid even the appearance of such activities. It would be a terrible setback for the industry if this subpoena turns up new problems. Or, perhaps this new round of digging by the New Jersey attorney general is unfounded—I, for one, hope so. It’s time to take ethics seriously.
Sherrie Conroy
Copyright ©2009 Med-Tech Precision
