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Last month ABC was the only network to cover the $670m fine levied against Big Pharma's Merck for kickbacks it paid to hospitals to prescribe its brands. Pierre Thomas filed the report. Now, on CBS' Follow the Money feature, Sharyl Attkisson gives that story a human face, introducing us to Dr William LaCorte, a New Orleans physician who blew the whistle on Merck and the city's Memorial Hospital. When LaCorte prescribed Zantac to his patients as an acid blocker, he was puzzled that the hospital should dispense Merck's rival brand Pepcid instead. The hospital called it "therapeutic interchange." It turned out to be a kickback. Merck sold the drug to the hospital at a discount on condition that Pepcid had an 80% market share. Yet the discount was not passed on to the feds. For Medicare and Medicaid, "Pepcid cost twice as much as Zantac."
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