{"id":6109,"date":"2013-11-12T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T13:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/how-j-alex-gorsky-tried-to-negotiate\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:17:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:17:03","slug":"how-j-alex-gorsky-tried-to-negotiate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/how-j-alex-gorsky-tried-to-negotiate\/","title":{"rendered":"How J&J’s Alex Gorsky Tried to Negotiate a Smaller DOJ Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Justice (DOJ) just updated its commemorative poster highlighting the now seven highest multi-million\/billion dollar settlements that drug companies have agreed to pay for inappropriately, and in some cases illegally, promoting prescription drugs.
\n<\/i>
\n
<\/i>
\nThe latest addition to the poster is Johnson and Johnson, which will pay $2.2 billion to the U.S. government to end civil and criminal investigations into kickbacks to pharmacists and the marketing of pharmaceuticals for off-label uses. <\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

\n— Pharma Marketing Blog (see here<\/a>)<\/div>\n

\n<\/a>Johnson and Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky (on phone): Is Eric there, please?<\/p>\n

Receptionist: May I ask who\u2019s calling?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Alex Gorsky.<\/p>\n

Receptionist: Did you say, \u201cAlex\u201d as in \u201cAlexandra\u201d?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Yes, but just plain Alex.<\/p>\n

Receptionist: Please hold.<\/p>\n

(A beat as Gorsky is placed on hold. Music is heard\u2014the Clash\u2019s rendition of \u201cI Fought the Law.\u201d After a minute or so . . .)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Attorney General Eric Holder: This is Eric.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Eric, it\u2019s Alex Gorsky.<\/p>\n

Holder: Alex. Hey. That\u2019s weird. My assistant said there was a girl named Alexandra on the phone.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: No just Alex! There are a lot of guys who are named Alex, O.K.?<\/p>\n

Holder: Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees, right?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Exactly.<\/p>\n

Holder: Yeah. We may be investigating him too. Just sayin\u2019<\/p>\n

Gorsky: So listen. I think we should meet.<\/p>\n

Holder: What, like, for dinner?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: No. For a business meeting.<\/p>\n

Holder: Oh.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Why? Would you ever want to have dinner?<\/p>\n

Holder: It doesn\u2019t have to be dinner. A walk would be nice. Maybe a coffee?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Both sound great. Let me tell you the reason I\u2019m calling. A few of the guys over here\u2014the board, for example\u2014we\u2019re a little concerned about some . . . money stuff. Like, that maybe you guys are still thinking of, uh, bringing charges against us.<\/p>\n

Holder: Yeah, we\u2019re definitely planning on doing that.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Huh. And this is something you feel strongly about?<\/p>\n

Holder: Pretty strongly, yeah.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: I see. And you have, like, evidence and stuff?<\/p>\n

Holder: I can\u2019t really talk about that, but yeah . . . like, boatloads.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Can I ask you a question? So you\u2019re definitely suing us?<\/p>\n

Holder: Can\u2019t really talk about it.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: How do you like being a lawyer?<\/p>\n

Holder: I like it. But I can\u2019t say I love it. You know?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Totally.<\/p>\n

Holder: Law school was a fallback. I had no idea what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Same. No sane person becomes a pharmaceutical company CEO.<\/p>\n

Holder: Is there a lot of science in your job?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: So much. And I\u2019m terrible at science.<\/p>\n

Holder: I know.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Funny. What do you call twenty-five attorneys buried up to their chins in cement?<\/p>\n

Holder: Here it comes . . .<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Not enough cement.<\/p>\n

Holder: You guys paid all the taxes on foreign profits, right?<\/p>\n

(Both laugh really hard.)<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Sure did. So listen, do you ever . . .<\/p>\n

Holder: What?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Do you ever . . . do you ever look out the window in the late afternoon and just get . . . sad? Like, for no reason?<\/p>\n

Holder: Almost every day.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: I\u2019ll walk around the office some days and just see people crying at their desks for no outward reason.<\/p>\n

Holder: Same here.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Total change of subject, but would you ever want to go camping?<\/p>\n

Holder: That was weird, because you read my mind. I have a two-man tent and, like, fourteen canteens.<\/p>\n

(Both laugh for a long time.)<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Now, in terms of a fine . . .<\/p>\n

Holder: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: I was talking with some of the guys here and we were thinking, like, a million maybe would be good.<\/p>\n

Holder: Huh.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Were you thinking that would be a good number?<\/p>\n

Holder: No-o-o.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Oh. What were you thinking, hypothetically?<\/p>\n

Holder: Hypothetically? Not less than Two.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Two. And that . . . that would be as in million?<\/p>\n

Holder: No, BILLION. As in two-point-two billion.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Of course. Because a two million . . . I mean, my Park Avenue apartment is worth more than that . . . Anyway. Wow. So two-point-two billion.<\/p>\n

Holder: Yeah.<\/p>\n

(A long beat.)<\/p>\n

Gorsky: So you feel like we were . . . were very bad, the guys and me, at the pharma company here.<\/p>\n

Holder: Pretty much, yeah.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Huh. That\u2019s so weird, because we weren\u2019t thinking that at all. We were thinking, you know, we made a lot of money and that was, like, good.<\/p>\n

Holder: Interesting. I guess for me it\u2019s how you made the money?<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Not sure I understand. Why would that matter?<\/p>\n

Holder: Well, over here it\u2019s kind of the . . . what\u2019s the word . . . the essence of the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Like . . . rules and stuff.<\/p>\n

Holder: Exactly.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Like that . . . what do you call it . . . Cosmic Law?<\/p>\n

Holder: The federal Food Drug and Cosmetic<\/i> Act.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Yeah, that one. That\u2019s funny, because we didn\u2019t really take that very seriously, especially with regard to \u201coff-label\u201d drug promotion. We actually have a copy of it up on a wall and people kind of point at it and laugh, because, I mean, it\u2019s just funny.<\/p>\n

Holder: I think that\u2019s where we differ a bit.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Interesting. O.K., then. Well . . . I should probably talk with some of the guys.<\/p>\n

Holder: Talk with the guys.<\/p>\n

Gorsky: Camping soon?<\/p>\n

Holder: Can\u2019t wait. Talk soon, Alex.<\/p>\n

[This spoof is modified from a New Yorker<\/i> magazine “Shouts & Mummers<\/a>” piece by John Kennedy. In that piece, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan\u2019s chief executive, is on the phone with Eric Holder.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Justice (DOJ) just updated its commemorative poster highlighting the now seven highest multi-million\/billion dollar settlements that drug companies have agreed to pay for inappropriately, and in some cases illegally, promoting prescription drugs. 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