Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation: Accountability, Promotion, and Fraud Case Studies

This session explores the fundamental conflicts of interest driving pharmaceutical industry impropriety, including Wall Street obligations and bonus structures that incentivize off-label promotion. Participants will learn how standards of care are manipulated through publication strategies and sales representatives, along with key evidentiary and procedural issues essential for investigating these complex cases.

Drawing from PharmedOut’s research at Georgetown University, this session exposes covert pharmaceutical marketing techniques that don’t look like marketing, including key opinion leaders, continuing medical education, and publication planning. Participants will discover how the industry invents diseases to sell drugs and examine the opioid crisis as a case study in manipulating medical perceptions of addiction and treatment.

This session provides detailed examinations of two landmark pharmaceutical fraud investigations: Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin case and Abbott Laboratories’ Depakote case. Participants will learn practical lessons about case origins, parallel civil and criminal investigation techniques, document management, witness development, and the critical importance of connecting misconduct to false claims.