Doctors Say Pfizer Program Discriminates Against Whites; NFL Player Sues Team Doctor

Do No Harm, a group of medical professionals who aim to “protect healthcare from a racist, divisive, and discriminatory ideology,” sued Pfizer over its Breakthrough Fellowship Program, which offers summer internships to rising Black, Latino, and Native American college seniors. The group argues the program “categorically excludes” white and Asian-American applicants. (Fierce Pharma)

Vanda Pharmaceuticals will pay $11.5 million to settle charges of illegal off-label promotion of its sleep drug tasimelteon (Hetlioz) and its schizophrenia drug iloperidone (Fanapt). (Endpoints News)

The family of a 6-month-old girl who suffered a brain injury during cardiac surgery retained two Houston attorneys and held a press briefing last week to impel Children’s Memorial Hermann to release the girl to another hospital. The family alleged that Memorial Hermann pressured them to stop medical care and let the child die naturally. (ABC Chicago)

A jury has awarded a county health department official $100,000 after losing her job for refusing to falsify blood test results of children exposed to lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. (AP)

NFL quarterback Tyrod Taylor is suing David Gazzaniga, MD, the team doctor for the Los Angeles Chargers, whom he alleged punctured his lung while giving a painkiller injection for fractured ribs ahead of a game in 2020, claiming it ultimately cost him his position with the team. (NBC Sports)

Pharmaceutical company Akorn will pay $7.9 million to resolve allegations that it continued to sell its generics under “obsolete” prescription-only labeling after the brand-name drugs were converted to over-the-counter status, according to the DOJ.

Former Kenton County, Kentucky coroner David Suetholz, MD, was convicted by a federal jury for illegally prescribing various painkillers and sleeping pills outside of the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical reason, DOJ said.

Podiatrist Kenneth Mitchell, DPM, was convicted for billing Medicare under his physician-partner’s name, after his privileges to participate in Medicare were revoked in 2015, according to DOJ.

In a blow to the Biden administration’s healthcare antitrust efforts, a federal judge has allowed UnitedHealth Group’s acquisition of Change Healthcare to move ahead. (Fierce Healthcare)

Florida nurse Desiree Lato, RN, was arrested after being investigated by employers for stealing pain medication at two hospitals. Lato also has a vulnerable adult protection injunction against her. (News 4 Jax)

Doctors in trouble with the law over opioid prescribing are using the Supreme Court decision Ruan v. United States to improve their chances of a better outcome in court. (Kaiser Health News)

The DOJ has charged 47 people involved in a scam that took $250 million from a COVID relief program that was supposed to provide meals to children but instead spent the money on luxury cars, houses, jewelry, and resort properties abroad. (NBC News)

Houston doctor Henry Zaleski, MD, will pay $240,000 to settle claims that he inappropriately received and spent government retirement benefit funds intended for his mother, according to the DOJ.

Baton Rouge physician Melissa Rose Barrett, MD, was charged with tax evasion for allegedly owing $1.6 million in unpaid taxes over a decade. (WAFB9)