Overview

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 harassment—all 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 industry’s 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 drug incorrectly. 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 science—and arbitrarily increased the drug’s 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 couldn’t risk losing her job—but her moral compass also wouldn’t 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 Questcor’s 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 insider’s look at the unscrupulous sales methods used by America’s 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 woman’s epic fight against Big Pharma and a mother’s heroic struggle to protect her family.

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9780063371101

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Reviews

""Lisa Pratta’s remarkable account of Big Pharma greed is a testament to her courage as a corporate insider turned whistleblower. False Claims is a page-turning exposè set against the background of Pratta’s steadfast refusal to capitulate to a drug company’s strong-arm pressure. It is a must read for anyone interested in knowing how America’s drug industry puts profits ahead of patients."" — Gerald Posner, author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America “If you’ve ever wondered why health care is so expensive in the United States, False Claims is a must read. It is an insider’s tale of one drug company’s disregard for scientific, legal, and moral values in its relentless pursuit of profit; a harrowing story of personal transformation into an activist willing to risk her financial and career security to expose the wrongdoing of her employers; and a deep exploration of her own formative experiences that sensitized her to the pain of injustice and left her more willing to go public with this information. I recommend it highly.” — John Abramson, MD, MSc, author of Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It ""A pacey, shocking and moving account of greed in the pharmaceutical industry. Lisa seamlessly weaves her courageous personal story with the eye-opening excess and deceit of Questcor to deftly show the personal toll of whistleblowing and the cost of staying silent. I devoured False Claims in two sittings."" — Cara McGoogan, author of Blood Farm: The Explosive Big Pharma Scandal That Altered the AIDS Crisis ""[A] sterling whistleblower procedural. . . . a vice-tight thriller."" — The Ankler ""This is both an illuminating up-close look at how corruption works and a moving account of one person discovering her strength."" — Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Lisa Pratta was 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 with a special needs son.

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