Specialty Pharmacists Selling Tasigna Compromised Ethical Standards

Novartis' Tasigna sales reps and specialty pharmacists practice the highest ethical standards so long as profits are not compromised

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - Specialty pharmacies dispense the most potent and lethal cancer drugs. Because of the potential for these drugs to cause serious injury and even death, specialty pharmacists are required to be licensed and are held to the highest ethical standards, much higher than say, your local CVS. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), "Specialty pharmacy is defined as the service created to manage the handling. and service requirements of specialty pharmaceuticals, including dispensing, distribution, reimbursement, case management, and other services specific to patients with rare and/or chronic diseases." Drugs whose only purpose is to treat rare and deadly forms of cancer would fall under this description. Specialty pharmacists are required to put the patient's well-being ahead of profits, however, in the real world, this is not always the case. Take, for example, the specialty pharmacist's role in refilling Gleevec prescriptions with Tasigna and replacing a highly-respected and safe anti-cancer drug with the more toxic and deadly one. Many would categorize such a switch as not only unethical but outright fraud.

Anti-cancer drug Gleevec was once the undisputed leader in the billion dollars per year market for anti-cancer drugs, both in terms of extending a patient's length of remission, and also in terms of making profits for Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG. Specialty cancer drugs are granted patents for a limited period of time after which, less expensive generic drug competition can enter the market. In 2015 Gleevec was scheduled to go off patent. In an attempt to preserve market share, Novartis rushed Tasigna to market as a Gleevec-replacement drug. Novartis put company profits ahead of medical ethics or patient safety when sales representatives organized sales incentive contests and offered cash bonuses to specialty pharmacists that filled the most Gleevec prescriptions with Tasigna. To further reinforce the pharmacist's willingness to make the switch, Novartis reps set up phony education and training programs where pharmacists would be paid to tout the benefits of Novartis family of drugs. Rather than see their incomes decimated by low cost, yet effective generic knockoffs, Novartis, and the pharmacists were only too eager to save their business. All knowledge of Tasigna's deadly side effects were hidden from cancer patients.

Shortly after Tasigna was unleashed on cancer patients, reports to the FDA began to surface of the drug's unforeseen deadly side effects. Patients were reporting symptoms consistent with atherosclerosis and peripheral artery disease, both potentially deadly conditions. Atherosclerosis is a gradual clogging and narrowing of the arteries that lead to the extremities in the legs, the brain, and the heart and causes necrosis, strokes, and heart attacks. Amputations, paralysis, and sudden death have all been reported by Tasigna cancer drug patients. Tasigna's maker, Novartis warned Health Canada in 2011 of the cases of atherosclerosis and related diseases caused by Tasigna but did not warn the US medical community. As a result, thousands of cancer patients in the United States now suffer from these and other life-altering side effects from a drug they assumed would make them well.

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Lawyers for Tasigna Atherosclerosis Lawsuits

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