We co-authored an article for Compliance Today with Channing Landreth, the associate vice president and managing counsel at Labcorp, to summarize how recent developments related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) impact healthcare companies.
As we point out, “Given its regulatory burden, the healthcare industry—including pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies—is particularly vulnerable to FCPA issues.”
The article focuses on several specific FCPA issues for healthcare companies to consider, including: permissible domestic practices that could run counter to the FCPA, the broad definition of “foreign official,” third-party liability, and risks related to regulatory approvals.
Noting these challenges, we emphasize the importance of implementing a robust compliance program that includes two key elements in particular:
- Management involvement and support so the compliance message is strong and consistent from the very top.
- Implementation of a tailored compliance program based on the “prerequisite step of assessing risk so that compliance measures appropriately address those risks.”
To read more about the challenges faced by healthcare companies under the FCPA, please access the full article, “Update on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Considerations for Healthcare Companies,” which was published in the June 2023 issue of Compliance Today and is available online.