Sunshine Act

Compliance News in Review, July 31, 2017

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A whistleblower settlement, the effect of a recent cyberattack on one company’s drug supply, transparency in Ontario, and the growth of CME, all served for your approval in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

It is the quintessential American food, even if it didn’t originate here; it’s the hamburger. Nothing beats a good burger, even during the hot dog days of summer (see what we did there?). The tasty entrée even inspired the bard of gulf and western music, Jimmy Buffet, to write a song extoling its virtues. So, how do you like your burger? With slaw? Kraut? Chili? Our mouths are watering just pondering the possibilities! Before we fire up the grill here at the News in Review World Headquarters, we’ll serve a tasty treat of a different flavor – the latest edition of the Compliance News in Review.

This is hardly minced meat. Celgene has agreed to pay $280 million to settle claims in a whistleblower suit that accused the company of promoting two of its cancer products for off-label purposes. The whistleblower, a former employee, claims the company directly marketed the drugs for the off-label uses and hid risks of blood clots from physicians. Celgene did not admit to wrongdoing in the settlement.

Still in a bit of pickle following the Petya cyberattack, Merck has warned that some drug supplies may be disrupted as it continues to rebound from the attack. The company’s R&D and manufacturing operations have not yet fully recovered and there may be temporary delays in filling orders for some products.

Ontario doctors may be flipping over a recent judicial decision that will allow the payments they receive from the government insurance program to be published. The Toronto Star filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the names of the top 100 billers. The Ontario Health Ministry refused to provide the names, saying it would be an invasion of privacy. Two doctor groups and the Ontario Medical Association also fought the release of names, arguing that doing so “accomplishes nothing other than naming and shaming.” The judges disagreed, saying the “public is entitled to information in the possession of their governments so that the public may, among other things, hold their governments accountable.”

The Accreditation Council of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) 2016 report on the growth of CME finds an increase in the number of events (7%), as well as an increase in the number of instructional hours (9%). The study also shows the number of activities and interactions has increased steadily since 2010. ACCME President and CEO, Dr. Graham McMahon, noted that there are currently more than 3,000 hours of CME available to healthcare providers.

That brings us to the end of another “well done” edition of the Compliance News in Review. We’ll see you right back here for the next summertime treatise, and in the meantime, we leave you with a few tips for barbecuing the perfect burger (olive oil…who knew?).

Have a great week!

Compliance News in Review, July 7, 2017

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Canadians, Californians, and Mainers are all on the hunt for transparency. Will they find “gold” they seek? Find out in this week’s News in Review.

There’s gold in them thar hills! Seriously. A number of years ago, a man hid an estimated $2 million treasure of gold and jewels somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, leaving only a cryptic poem to guide treasure hunters to the stash. At the time, he said he hoped it would inspire folk to get up off their couches and explore nature. Many have, and unfortunately, a couple of them met an untimely end during that search. As far as anyone knows, the treasure is still out there for the taking, but before we break out our atlases and sharpen our pickaxes, let’s dig into the news of the day in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

Pharma companies will be able to hold on to their doubloons if an amendment to the California bill prohibiting gifts and restricting payments to doctors stands. Legislators eliminated the penalties associated with the bill, but added a provision that prohibits doctors from receiving payments for speaking or serving as faculty at events that are not accredited by the ACCME or a similar organization.

A pair of Canadian doctors are on the hunt for transparency with a program intended to gain support for more industry/physician transparency. According to one of the doctors, “interaction with industry is everywhere and a lot of progress has come from collaborating,” but he worries that trust will be eroded if they continue to “keep relationships in the dark.”

Providing some clues to the transparency hunt, ten of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Canada released information on transfers of value they provided to healthcare professionals and organizations. The effort was headed by GSK, and included AbbVie, Merck, and Eli Lilly. Total payments for all the companies came in just under $50 million and covered the 2016 calendar year. Critics complained the data provided little real transparency because the figures represented the companies’ aggregate payments to all doctors or healthcare organizations, rather than individual practitioners or organizations.

The release of this data prompted one treasure hunter, Ontario’s health minister, to announce he will investigate the concept of requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose physician payment data (a la the U.S. Sunshine Act). He said the voluntary release of recent spend data by certain pharmaceutical companies was a good start, and that the government is “committed to strengthening transparency across the healthcare sector.” Consultations into the matter are scheduled for this summer.

Trekking across the Canadian border to Maine, we discover the legislature has passed a bill that will curtail payments from pharmaceutical companies to doctors. The bill prohibits the provision of “cash gifts” but allows non-monetary gifts of “minimal value.” It also allows doctors to receive payments for speaking about research at “legitimate educational conferences.”

For those wishing to do a little prospecting, the Open Payments data for the 2016 is now available. Nearly 1,500 companies reported transactions totaling $8.1 billion. Just over half of the $8 billion went toward research. A billion dollars was paid in ownership interest, and just under $3 billion fell in the general payments categories. Nearly 12 million records were published this year, covering 631,000 physicians and 1,146 teaching hospitals.

There’s a certain theme running through this week’s news bites. Transparency. Governments, academia, and special interest groups, all extol the need for transparency in the relationships between life science companies and healthcare professionals. Although most of the heavy lifting regarding data is typically handled by a small group of dedicated data hounds, others in the organization need to be aware of the laws and their restrictions.

Those who interact with healthcare professionals need to know the types of information that is reported and understand their role in assuring the accurate and timely collection of the data. As the saying goes, “garbage in: garbage out,” and considering that many of these laws carry financial penalties for reporting errant data, companies certainly want to take steps to reduce the “garbage.”

Well, we’ve reached the end of the trail on this edition of the Compliance News in Review. We’ll see you right back here for the next edition.

Thanks for reading!

Compliance News in Review, June 13, 2017

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States with new laws, lawsuits and more; HHS says drug pricing is a top issue; the AMA takes aim at DTC ads again; and transparency efforts and more from Europe…all in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

The magic, mystery, and “monstering” of the summer movies season is in full swing! From super-heroes to lush gothic tales, there’s something for everyone this summer. There’s nothing like escaping to the theater on a rainy summer day. Can’t you just smell the popcorn and taste the Milk Duds? Before you head off to take in the latest blockbuster or art house feature, silence your cell phone and enjoy this screening of the latest edition of the Compliance News in Review.

We begin with a trilogy of compelling releases. The Nevada legislature passed a bill that would have required makers of diabetes drugs to report drug pricing information to the State. The bill was forwarded to the governor, who promptly vetoed it. Undaunted, State senators revised the bill; removing the requirements to which the governor objected and adding provisions that apply to all drug manufacturers. It was passed, and in an ending fit for Hollywood, the governor has said he is “proud to sign” the new bill. The law will require manufacturers to report pricing for diabetes drugs, and all manufacturers must now supply a list of sales representatives who work in the State. Additionally, all transfers of value from Nevada sales representative to HCPs must be reported each year, including those to mid-level practitioners and office staff.

It’s a wrap on a new law concerning generic drug pricing in Maryland. Generic drug makers will now be fined when a price increase causes a product’s wholesale acquisition price (WAC) to increase by more than 50% in one year, or if the drug’s WAC is greater than $80. Maryland’s expressed concern that the bill did not address the cost of patented drugs and devices, and that it may result in citizens not having access to some generic drugs. Concerns aside, the governor did not veto the bill. The law will go into effect October 1.

The Washington D.C. Department of Health has posted several FAQs related to AccessRx. The FAQs cover a variety of issues including reporting timelines, advertising expenses, and gift reporting.

HHS Secretary, Dr. Tom Price, says drug pricing is a coming attraction for the agency. In testimony before the senate budget committee, Price said the president has directed him to develop proposals to lower drug costs. He also said meetings with stakeholders have already taken place.

This attraction is rated “P” for pricing. At the AMA’s annual meeting, the group will consider a proposal urging drug manufacturers to list drug prices in DTC ads. The proposal was introduced by several New England medical societies, and advocates who have been pushing federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the FDA, to compel drug companies to include retail pricing information in DTC ads. The proposal will need to be approved by the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates before being presented to the larger body.

From the foreign film division, a story of transparency. German doctors will be able to voluntarily disclose payments they receive from drug companies in a database managed by the non-profit journalism group, Correctiv. According to a study conducted by Correctiv, 71,000 German doctors received 575 million Euros worth of payments from the industry last year. The study also found that only 29% of doctors were willing to have their payment information published.

Two companies have been publicly reprimanded for breaches of the ABPI Code of Practice. In one case, a media agency published the work it did for the company to promote the agency’s creative capabilities. The work was out-of-date and no longer accurate. Even though the company did not give the agency permission to publish the work, and voluntarily reported the incident, it was found to have violated Clause 2 of the Code of Practice; bringing discredit upon and reducing confidence in the industry. In the other breach, another company was reprimanded for distributing a patient support leaflet with inaccurate and misleading information. The company was asked to issue a corrective statement to the healthcare providers who had already received the leaflet.

The last story is a good reminder of the importance of making sure your compliance training extends to vendors and other third parties. In bribery cases, we see the damage that can be caused when third parties run afoul of laws and regulations. Vendors and other third parties need to be evaluated for the risk associated with their services and targeted training should be provided based on that risk.

With that, we roll the closing credits on this edition of the Compliance News in the Review. Thanks for reading. We’ll see you at the movies!

Compliance News in Review, May 22, 2017

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Insider trading baseball; PhRMA changes the rules; shorter FCPA investigations; praise for Medicines Australia transparency efforts; and a Chinese television drama all about anticorruption. The heat is on in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

The “official” start of summer is just around the corner and the sun, sand, and ‘squitos will be here before you can say “turn up the air conditioning.” Considering the late winter-like weather many have been experiencing around the U.S. (we feel your pain Colorado), a little heat and humidity sounds like a good idea. Before we restock the sunblock supply and head for the beach (or “down the shore” if you happen to reside in New Jersey), let’s review what has been heating up the newswires, with this issue of the Compliance News in Review.

A former “boy of summer” Doug DeCinces, was found guilty of insider trader for acting on non-public information related to the sale of a medical device company. Prosecutors claimed the former major league baseball player received information from his neighbor, the CEO of a medical device company, about the pending sale of the company to Abbott Laboratories. Prosecutors claimed DeCinces, who was found guilty on 14 felony counts, made stock trades based on the information and tipped others about the sale. His lawyer plans to file a motion for a new trial.

The heat is on at PhRMA. New rules regarding membership in the organization went into effect recently, and promptly led to the ouster of several companies. The new rules require member companies to spend at least 10% of sales on global research and development over three years. Companies must also spend at least $200 million a year on research. Seven companies were unable to meet the new requirements and lost their membership.

Some doctors felt the need to share their warm feelings for Medicines Australia’s transparency efforts. A pair of physicians, and the leader of the Greens party, who is also a doctor, penned a letter to the Australian Medical Journal, praising the organization’s move to increase transparency in industry/HCP relationships. The letter suggests that pharmaceutical and medical device companies follow Medicines Australia’s lead.

As the summer days grow longer, FCPA investigations could be getting shorter. During a conference, Trevor McFadden, acting principal deputy assistant attorney general, for the Department of Justice, expressed his hope that future FCPA investigations will “be measured in months, not years.” FCPA thought leaders believe that narrowing the self-reporting window will help control the scope of investigations, but interviewing witnesses in foreign countries can be time consuming.

A television program focused on anti-corruption in government is heating up the Chinese airwaves. The Chinese government usually bans artistic endeavors related to anti-corruption, but the drama, In the Name of the People, has the support and “green-backing” of the government. The show follows the story of an upstanding detective who investigates government corruption in a fictional Chinese province. The program is the top show on Chinese television, and nearly a dozen similar programs are in production.

The focus on anticorruption efforts around the world continues to grow. Does your training extend beyond the FCPA to cover countries like China, Mexico, and Brazil? The newly update Compliance Foundations™ eLearning module, Global Anticorruption Laws introduces learners to the regulations, and the affect they have on their daily work lives and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries in general. Contact us to see a content outline or demo.

Thanks for reading!

Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress 2017 Preview

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The 14th Annual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress (PCC 2017) is just around the corner. Whether you work in Compliance, R&D, or Medical Affairs, this year’s conference has sessions for you. We’ll be there as well, catching up with friends and colleagues and learning the latest trends and best practices from industry and government professionals. Here are just a few of the sessions and content streams we have on our to-do list.

Preconference

If you’re there for the preconference sessions on Wednesday, we humbly suggest the session titled Accelerated Learning – Healthcare Compliance and Policy Applications. Dan O’Connor, Senior Vice President for PharmaCertify™, will join a panel of industry leaders and legal consultants in what promises to be a valuable primer for those new to the compliance function or those not in the compliance department who need to understand the responsibilities of their compliance colleagues. We’ve seen the previews!

Day One

Plan to arrive early on Day One, since the opening session, Ignite and Infuse – Integrating a Compliant Culture within Company DNA features an impressive panel of leaders from the industry, including Beth Levine from Regeneron, Jim Massey from AstraZeneca, and Michael Shaw from GlaxoSmithKline.

Following the lunch break, we’re interested in the First Amendment and Off-label Promotion – Caronia and Beyond session occurring in the Promotional Compliance content stream. Considering the recent news around the final rule for off-label promotion and the introduction of a bill in Congress on the topic, it promises to be a timely discussion. We’re also interested the HEOR, Real World Evidence and Comparative Research Effectiveness session in the Clinical Research and R&D Compliance content stream to learn more about how health economic and outcomes research affects the compliance space.

The Small to Mid-Sized Bio/Pharma Boot Camp offers sessions dedicated to issues of concern to a significant portion of the attendees. Compliance professionals working in smaller companies face the same issues as their counterparts in large companies, but are challenged to do more with less as they strive to build or expand their compliance programs. We’re looking forward to hearing how they deal with the challenges of training with such limited resources.

The late afternoon Global Compliance content stream includes several sessions covering anticorruption laws around the globe. (And by the way, when you can work a nod to Walt Disney World in your session title, you’ve got our attention.) Anticorruption efforts are increasing rapidly around the world. The Department of Justice has indicated it doesn’t intend to end the FCPA Pilot Program anytime soon, signaling its intention to continue the aggressive pursuit of corruption cases. Also, the Serious Fraud office in the UK recently entered into its first corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreement, adding even more muscle to the UK Bribery Act.

Since training around speaker programs is a consistent concern and need for our clients, we’ll also be listening carefully and taking copious notes in the Compliance Concerns Regarding Speaker Programs session in the Medical Affairs content stream.

Day Two

On Day Two, we’ll be in our seats bright and early again, and we don’t expect to need extra coffee for a session titled, Cardiac Arrest – Surviving Five Years as a Medical Device CEO on the DOJ’s Hit List. We are particularly interested to hear how prosecutors use the Yates Memo to focus on individuals during an investigation. If that isn’t enough to wake you up, the Data Protection, Privacy Risks and Cyber Crime session should do the trick, considering the vast amounts of data those in the industry are required to manage and protect.

The use of third parties and other intermediaries is one of the top bribery risks facing life sciences companies, so as Day Two wraps up, we’ll be sure to catch the Third-Party Due Diligence in the U.S. and Abroad workshop.

If you’re attending the conference, we want to know what you think. Stop by Booth 10 in the Exhibit Hall and let us know what sessions you found to be most intriguing and useful. If you can’t make it this year, watch for updates on the PharmaCertify™ Twitter feed and our annual post conference highlights and notes here on our blog.

We hope to see you in Washington!

Compliance News in Review, April 19, 2017

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The city of Chicago releases sales representative licensure rules; review and dispute time is here again; opioid manufacturers receive letters and negotiate settlements; and Australia proposes changes to its bribery law, in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

April showers may bring may flowers, but they also bring something else…the Boys of Summer. Major League baseball is back! Much of the buzz seems to center around a former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and his homerun prowess. Whether your team is off to a hot start (we’re looking at you Yankees fans) or surprisingly struggling (are the Blue Jays already too far out?), there’s plenty of time for the standings to change as the temperatures warm. For now, buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack and settle in for this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

Our first story comes from Chicago, home of the 2016 World Series champion Cubs. The City has released draft rules for its pharmaceutical sales representative licensure ordinance. The initial license is $750.00. Like the rules in place for detailers in Washington DC, Chicago’s ordinance has a continuing professional education provision. Education provided by the rep’s company will not suffice in meeting the requirement unless the company applies for and receives approval from the city. The draft rules also require sales representatives to track their interactions with healthcare professionals.

April 1st was opening day for the Open Payment’s review and dispute period. Physicians and teaching hospitals are free to review recent submissions to the system and dispute items they believe are incorrect. The review and dispute period for the 2016 Program Year ends on May 15th.

Senator Claire McCaskill sent letters to a lineup of opioid manufacturers requesting that they provide information related to sales, marketing and education strategies used to promote their products. from which she wants some information. McCaskill acknowledged that most of the players in the opioid market act responsibly and she said the purpose of her investigation is to learn if any of the practices

Mallinckrodt has agreed to settle a DEA probe for $35 million. The settlement involved the company’s suspicious order monitoring program for controlled substances. The settlement is under review by the DOJ and DEA. In a statement, Mallinckrodt said it had not violated the law, and the settlement does not include an admission of liability.

Australia appears to be poised to move its bribery law up to the major leagues. Government officials there announced that several reforms were being considered to deal with bribery of foreign public officials. The reforms include the addition of a “corporate failure to prevent bribery” offence and use of deferred prosecution agreements to encourage self-reporting. Among the changes proposed, the definition of a foreign public official would include political candidates and bribery offences would extend to those that offer a “personal advantage,” not just a “business advantage.”

The anticorruption landscape continues to evolve. The PharmaCertify Compliance Foundations™ eLearning module, Global Anticorruption Laws, covers the concepts common to most anticorruption/anti-bribery laws, as well as the specifics related to laws such as the FCPA and the UK Bribery Act. In addition, our new Compliance QuickTake™, Recognizing and Reducing Third-Party Risks, covers the risks associated with working with third parties, in a targeted microlearning format.

The PharmaCertify™ team will be offering demos of our compliance training products at the Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in Washington next week. Stop by Booth 10 in the Exhibit Hall to say hi, and while you’re there, enter our drawing to win a JBL SPLASHPROOF PORTABLE SPEAKER.

See you in Washington!

Move Beyond the Basics to Make Compliance Training Stick

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We’ve come a long way in life sciences compliance training in a relatively short time. Fifteen years ago, the common approach to compliance training often involved lawyers from the legal department, using PowerPoint slide decks to train large groups, once a year at POA sessions. Somewhere along the way, the industry recognized the importance of instructional design, and the power of technology, as the focus shifted to eLearning and the on-going search for ways to use it in an engaging and creative manner. That pursuit continues.

Instructionally-sound, creatively-scripted eLearning still represents an effective method for training large groups across a company, but to truly reduce risk, micro-learning concepts need to be strategically integrated to your curriculum. More targeted training, focused on specific subjects, and smaller audiences, is key. Let’s use anticorruption training as an example.

Anti-bribery legislation is on the rise around the world, and the increasing risks associated with the growing number of laws requires a comprehensive approach to your anti-bribery/anticorruption (ABAC) training. Core ABAC training, by nature, needs to address an expansive topic list, and it needs to be targeted to audiences as diverse as sales and marketing; medical affairs; regulatory; logistics; and manufacturing. Once that core training is launched though, the audiences that represent the highest risk (i.e., sales and marketing), and the topics that present the greatest risks to those audiences, (e.g., third-party red flags) need to be identified. As one example, deploying a smaller module on “recognizing and reducing third-party red flags,” to the sales and marketing audience after the broader ABAC module is completed, reduces risk for the one audience that has direct contact with third-party intermediaries.

Micro-learning doesn’t have to end with mini-modules. Employees are seeking information and training differently than they did back in those PowerPoint-driven years. Tools such as infographics and scenario-based video sequences offer more opportunity to make the focused learning stick, especially when spaced appropriately across a learner’s timeline and blended with other learning components. In addition, reinforcement doesn’t end with training. Apps offer an ideal method for delivering “just-in-time” reference content where the employees need it most – in the field and at their fingertips. In this case, offering access to a list of red flags, and tips for how to identify them, would drive down the risk for that sales and marketing audience.

The PharmaCertify team will be exhibiting at the 14th Annual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in Washington April 26-28. If you’re attending, stop by Booth 10 (it’s back there where CBI keeps all the good food!) to share your ideas for reinforcing compliance learning in your organization. After all, we’re compliance learning geeks – we want to hear them! And don’t miss Dan O’Connor, Senior Vice President for PharmaCertify™ at NXLevel Solutions, as he and his co-presenters offer a conference prelude session on healthcare compliance and policy applications.

See you in Washington!

Sean Murphy, Product and Marketing Manager

The Forgetting Curve and Compliance Training

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What exactly does a 167-year-old German scientist have to do with your compliance training? As a chief compliance officer, or training manager, the answer may keep you up at night – especially if you haven’t integrated micro-learning elements continuously into your company’s compliance learning curriculum.

Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who is credited with theorizing fundamentals of human learning, including the learning curve, the spacing effect, and the forgetting curve. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve essentially states that what humans remember after a learning event drops steeply soon after completion of that event. His research shows that memory loss continues to increase until it finally flattens around 30-days post event.

 

Steven Just, Ed.D., Chief Learning Officer at Intela Learning, a developer of continuous learning platforms, writes, “What gets stored in our long-term memories is subject to decay (i.e. forgetting)… deep learning occurs when memories are stored in long-term memory and stabilized. This is called memory consolidation.”

Fortunately for those of us seeking to reduce compliance risks across a company, spacing follow up micro-learning components, in smaller chunks, across a learner’s timeline helps flatten that forgetting curve and increase retention. As Dr. Just writes, “Retrieve the memory from long-term memory, bring it into working memory, process it, and then re-store (re-encode) it in long-term memory.”

Micro-learning Tools

Short “sprints” of learning deployed in follow up to foundational compliance training provides that opportunity for the concepts to be “re-stored” in the learner’s long-term memory. Micro-learning can include brief mini modules focused on one topic that you’ve identified as needing reinforcement. If gifts and meals are a high risk for your HCP-facing employees, a scenario-based mini module built around a common situation they face in the field, deployed soon after the comprehensive training, is one method for alleviating their concerns and reinforcing the appropriate behaviors. Mini modules aren’t the only effective tools for flattening the curve though. Short learning nuggets like quizzes and gaming, strategically deployed over time serve to heighten retention as well. As another option, sprint activities and scenario-based mysteries can be delivered in a competitive workshop format to reinforce participants’ understanding of policies and principles. (We call it the Compliance Reality Challenge).

Code of Conduct

Considering the range of topics covered in a typical code of conduct, from workplace violence; to harassment; and gifts and hospitality, a more creative and engaging approach to reinforcing the initial code training is not only a good idea, it’s crucial to improving the learning. One approach we’ve deployed to successful reviews is what we’ve titled Know the Code. Working with the client, we target specific topics within the broader code of conduct to create a “streaming” series, with each 7-minute “episode” built around those topics. Each animated scene in a scenario lasts approximately one minute. A narrator character tells the story and when necessary, directs the learner to take part in on-screen activities, with individual character voices employed to bring life and realism to the scenarios. The episodes are strategically released across a timeframe designed to once again, “re-store the concepts originally covered in the core module into the learners’ long-term memories.”

Keep it Continuous

The bottom line: to make compliance training as effective as possible in terms of reducing risk across the company, the learning nuggets you continuously rollout after the initial event (eLearning module, instructor-led training, etc.) are as important as the initial event itself. PharmaCertify offers the reinforcement tools, instructional expertise and an exciting new system that uses the most widely-accepted algorithm for creating and delivering post-training learning sprints to accomplish that goal. If you’re attending the 14th Annual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress April 26-28, stop by Booth 10 to see demos of the products and platform, and ask how we can help reduce risk and strengthen the compliance culture in your company.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you in Washington!

Sean Murphy, Product and Marketing Manager, PharmaCertify™

Compliance News in Review, January 27, 2017

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The Serious Fraud Office leads the charge on Rolls-Royce’s multi-jurisdictional bribery settlement; the FDA releases new draft guidance; and a new transparency law is on the way in Maine.

While most obscure, strange, and funny “holidays” may be dismissed as whimsy, and fodder for creative water cooler conversations, Chocolate Cake Day is one that we here at the News in Review celebrate with vigor and enthusiasm. From Devil’s Food to Black Forest, we look forward to marking the occasion with more than one variation on theme. In fact, why not just make a weekend of it? Meanwhile, if a day dedicated to the splendors of chocolate cake isn’t sweet enough for you, we offer a delectable morsel of a different type, with this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

Rolls-Royce is getting its just desserts on three continents. The company recently entered into a $800 million multi-jurisdictional settlement with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the U.S. and Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal, to resolve charges it paid bribes to foreign officials in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South America and Asia. In a twist on the usual tale, the SFO, not the DOJ was the agency spearheading the investigation. In addition to the financial penalties paid to each country, Rolls-Royce entered into deferred prosecution agreements with the U.K. and US governments, and a leniency agreement with Brazil.

The FDA is working on a new recipe for sharing healthcare economic information (HCEI). The agency released draft guidance for the sharing of HCEI with payors, formulary committees and similar entities. The guidance includes questions and answers about sharing HCEI related to investigational products with payors. The comment period for the draft guidance began January 17 and will remain open for 90 days.

On the state level, a legislator in Maine read a newspaper report about the increase in promotional spending by companies that manufacture opiods, and decided to introduce a law intended to curtail gifts from the industry to physicians. The language in the bill is based on the Minnesota gift prohibition law

Anticorruption efforts around the world are moving full steam ahead in 2017 and the fact that the SFO is spearheading investigational efforts presents a new twist. We don’t know yet if this is the start of a new trend, but we do know the SFO has the means to investigate and resolve large cases like the one with Rolls-Royce. Since the passage of the UK Bribery Act in 2011, the news around potential investigations has been quiet, but that is clearly changing. Like the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act has a wide reach.

Now is the time to review the training components of your anticorruption program to ensure employees, vendors and other third parties are being trained regularly about bribery laws and your company’s policies. Is that training engaging and based on real-world scenarios? Is deployment spaced over time to maximize effectiveness and retention? Have you mixed in smaller, more-focused micro-learning to reinforce topics like “identifying red flags?” Taking proactive steps now will strengthen help reduce risk and strengthen your culture around the globe for years to come.

With that, we put the wraps on this tasty edition of the Compliance News in Review. Until next time, we say, “let them (and us) eat cake!”

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Compliance News in Review: the 2016 Year-End Summary

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Here we are again. Another 584 million-mile (940 million km for our metric friends) trip around the sun is nearly complete. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the beginning of 2016 and now we’re picking out our favorite brand of champagne to celebrate its end. Before we break out the noisemakers and party favors, let’s take one last nostalgic look back at some of the life sciences compliance-related developments of 2016.

A new milestone was reached regarding HCP spend disclosure. The first disclosure reports under the EFPIA Disclosure Code were released in 2016. Gaining disclosure authorization from individual HCPs proved to be a challenge for the industry and the numbers of doctors who granted authorization ranged widely between countries. According to Britain’s pharmaceutical trade association, ABPI, 70% of their HCPs granted authorization and in Ireland, just over half of HCPs did so. In other transparency developments, ten of Canada’s top drug firms announced plans to voluntarily disclose aggregate physician and healthcare organization payment data. The movement was started by GSK Canada, and other multinational firms including Abbvie, Purdue, BMS, and Lilly followed.

Drug pricing was a big story in 2016. Former CEOs from Turing and Valeant were called to testify before Congress about drug price hikes, and Mylan’s CEO was called to testify over dramatic increases in the cost of an EpiPen. Laws that would require drug companies to disclose information about their pricing decisions were proposed in several states, and a bill was introduced at the federal level with similar requirements. Even with those high profile stories making headlines, only one pricing disclosure law successfully passed this year – Vermont. That law requires a select group of manufacturers to provide information about the factors related to price increases.

A handful of former Insys employees had an eventful year. A former sales representative entered a guilty plea to charges of fraud, and a district sales manager and a several of top executives were all arrested on charges they paid kickbacks to doctors. The drug at the center of the charges is the opioid painkiller, fentanyl. Prosecutors and enforcement agencies claim the individuals offered a variety of kickbacks to doctors to increase prescriptions and encouraged them to prescribe it for unapproved uses.

2016 was an active year for settlements related to bribery cases. GSK, AstraZeneca, SciClone, and Novartis all entered into settlements with the SEC over activities conducted by subsidiaries in China. Orthofix and Teva both set aside cash in anticipation of resolving the FCPA-related charges. Olympus entered into a $22.8 million settlement with the DOJ to resolve charges that a subsidiary covering Latin America paid bribes to healthcare professionals working in government facilities in order to increase sales of product.

We saw a couple of legal “victories” for the industry in the debate over sharing truthful off-label information. In the Amarin case, the FDA decided not to appeal a judge’s decision that allowed the company to share truthful off-label information about its fish oil product. In addition, in proposed jury instructions for a medical device case, the DOJ indicated that it is “not a crime for a device company or its representatives to give doctors wholly truthful and non-misleading information about the unapproved use of a device.”

With a string of legal decisions favoring the industry, the FDA held a public forum in November concerning the ability of drug and device makers to share off-label information. The primary topic was whether the agency needs to revise its regulations considering recent legal decisions and the forum was attended by various stakeholders representing both sides of the argument.

With that, we complete our look back at 2016 and the stories that made headlines in the world of life science compliance. It was an eventful year, and everyone at the Compliance News in Review is excited to see what the new year holds. Thanks for joining us throughout the year and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and compliant 2017!