The life sciences law is an umbrella term that broadly covers a wide range of policy judgment, scientific discovery, and legal matters that impact how medical devices, drugs, biotechnological products, and pharmaceuticals are developed, produced, distributed, and used. As a highly regulated field, the life sciences industry is exceedingly vulnerable to unethical practices and, consequently, significantly high in employee claims seeking to “blow the whistle” on allegedly unethical, criminal, and unlawful practices, which introduces us to the subject of whistleblowing and retaliation in this blog post.
Retaliation and Whistleblowing Claims within the Life Sciences Industry
As mentioned above, employers within the highly regulated life sciences industry are significantly vulnerable to employee claims seeking to “blow the whistle” on allegedly unethical, criminal, and unlawful practices. Based on a recent report released in December 2018 by the Department of Justice, while $2.1 billion came directly from whistleblower actions, $2.5 billion of the $2.8 billion recovered pursuant to 31 USC § 3729 et seq. (the False Claims Act (FCA)) were recovered from the industry of healthcare.
In light of these statistics, some of the most typical scenarios giving rise to whistleblower activities and actions include, but are not limited to:
- The falsified reporting of drug research grants information to government agencies;
- The making of inappropriate changes to patients’ prescriptions from one drug to another (based on various improper reasons, such as kickbacks);
- Knowingly providing defective products;
- The provision of kickbacks to medical providers for prescribing certain drugs; and
- The sale and manufacture of unneeded drugs and/or medication and providing such unneeded treatment.
While it gives rise to a high percentage of litigations in this field, retaliating against anybody who brings “whistleblowing claims” in good faith is prohibited under most state and federal laws. In fact, these laws provide a wide range of whistleblower protections that aim to protect whistleblowers and ensure that they are not retaliated against or harassed for engaging, in good faith, in whistleblowing activities and actions. Employers within the life sciences industry should carefully review the laws that govern whistleblowing activities in their states and identify specific provisions that may be applicable to complaints against their businesses.
In Part III of this new series, we shall move the discussion forward and hammer on “Whistleblower Protections under the False Claims Act (FCA)” for an overview of the whistleblower protections provided under this Act.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!
Always rising above the bar,
Isaac T.,
Legal Writer, Author, & Publisher.
