Federal Trade Commission Takes Aim at Pharmaceutical Industry “Product Hopping”

By James M. Burns Declaring that “The potential for anticompetitive product design is particularly acute in the pharmaceutical industry,” on November 21 the FTC filed an amicus brief in Mylan Pharmaceuticals v. Warner Chilcott Public Limited Company (E.D. Pa.), urging the court not to accept the view that “product-hopping” (the practice of repeatedly reformulating a …

Anti-Kickback Statute and On-Call Payments to Physicians

By Keith C. Dennen EMTALA requires hospitals to provide “appropriate” medical examination and treatment to individuals who come to the emergency room.  Medicare requires hospitals to provide a list of doctors who are “on-call” to provide this treatment.  Doctors, particularly specialists, are refusing to be “on-call” unless they are paid for this service.    What does …