False Claims: One Insider's Impossible Battle Against Big Pharma Corruption

(Hardback)

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For the first time, Lisa Pratta shares her story of going undercover as a whistleblower at a Big Pharma company and standing up to systemic corruption, greed, and harassmentall while caring for her special needs son as a single mother.

When Lisa Pratta started her career as a pharmaceutical sales representative, she had no idea of the industrys depravity, and the endemic sexual harassment, bribery, and fraud she witnessed only got worse over time.

Lisa hoped that might all change when she landed her dream job with a small company called Questcor which sold a drug that, when prescribed correctly, could help patients with multiple sclerosis. Yet Questcor realized they could make more money prescribing the drugincorrectly. While the FDA had approved the drug for two- to three-week treatments, Questcor was training, encouraging, and incentivizing its sales force to push a five-day treatment plan not backed by any scienceand arbitrarily increased the drugs price to $28,000 for a single vial.

Pratta recognized this as being not only dangerous for patients, but also highly illegal. As the single mother of a special-needs son, Lisa couldnt risk losing her jobbut her moral compass also wouldnt allow her to stay silent.

Thus began her double life as a whistleblower. For nearly a decade she clandestinely fed information to the Department of Justice. Resisting internal pressure to succumb to Questcors illegal sales tactics, she was constantly harassed by supervisors and in danger of being fired, while the government offered her no protection in the event her betrayal was discovered.

This incredible story offers an insiders look at the unscrupulous sales methods used by Americas corrupt pharmaceutical industry, analyzes the levers they pull to extract ludicrous profits from the sick and dying, and is a page-turning portrait of one womans epic fight against Big Pharma and a mothers heroic struggle to protect her family.

Reviews

"Lisa Prattas remarkable account of Big Pharma greed is a testament to her courage as a corporate insider turned whistleblower. False Claimsis a page-turning expos set against the background of Prattas steadfast refusal to capitulate to a drug companys strong-arm pressure. It is a must read for anyone interested in knowing how Americas drug industry puts profits ahead of patients." Gerald Posner, author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

Author Bio

Lisa Prattawas a top-selling pharmaceutical and biotech sales representative for thirty-two years, helping to pave the way for women in the field, only to see the entire industry corrode with sexual harassment and fraud. Lisa was an honors graduate of Albright University before launching her career at pharma giants such as Astra Zeneca, Serono, and Questcor/Mallinckrodt. In 2012, while still employed at Questcor, Lisa became a whistleblower reporting off-label prescriptions and Medicare fraud to the United States government and went undercover for nearly a decade. She is a single mother of two, including a special-needs son.