AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A Swiss drug firm that pleaded guilty to deceptive marketing of an AIDS drug has been fined and barred from U.S. healthcare programs.
Geneva-based Serono Laboratories made Serostim, a once-popular anti-wasting drug sold to doctors treating AIDS patients. But as demand for Serostim fell, the firm promoted the use of altered computer software that falsely indicated the onset of weight loss and AIDS wasting, the Austin Business Journal said Wednesday.
The skewed computer results were designed to induce physicians to prescribe Serostim, which cost patients $21,000 for a course of treatment.
Serono pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring with Clinton Township, Mich., medical device manufacturer RJL Sciences Inc. to market the faulty software aggressively, and to offering physicians who prescribed Serostim an all-expense paid trip to Cannes, France.
Serono Laboratories, its U.S. subsidiary, Serono Holding, and all affiliates will be prohibited from participating in any federal health care programs for at least five years.
