Re: GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3 billion for health fraud
Ah so, grasshopper! Thanks for asking the question, Sky.
Just looky here! A whistelblower brought 'em down! GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) $3 Billion Whistleblower Settlement Has Paid for One Of America's Most Expensive Failed Corporate Internal Investigations, Qui Tam Whistleblowers' Attorneys Say
PHILADELPHIA, July 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline has just paid for
one of the most expensive failed internal investigations in corporate history, qui tam whistleblower attorney Brian Kenney said today. His law firm, Kenny & McCafferty, P.C., represents
the two whistleblowers who sparked the nine-year federal probe that ended with today's $3 billion payment to settle off-label drug marketing allegations involving nine prescription drugs.
"When our clients were
forced out of their marketing positions, GlaxoSmithKline ('GSK')
had proof of illegal off-label prescription drug marketing. Our clients properly reported those marketing misdeeds to management in 2001. An ensuing GSK internal investigation verified their allegations, but the company took no action, choosing hefty profits over compliance and patient safety," said whistleblower attorney Tavy Deming of Kenney & McCafferty.
"GSK could have saved hundreds of millions, perhaps a billion or more dollars of the $3 billion it paid today by
following through on the combined Human Resources /Corporate Compliance investigation they launched. Instead they ignored evidence of improper marketing and physician kickbacks. When you look at the detail and accuracy of Greg Thorpe's written complaints distributed to the highest levels of Glaxo (See 'Document Links' Below) it's almost surreal that the company took no corrective action. Now more than a decade later, GSK is essentially admitting that Thorpe had been right in 2001," Kenney said. "It's been a very, very, very long 10 years for whistleblowers Thorpe and Blair Hamrick."
GSK's top management was aware of illegal marketing schemes involving the drugs, according to filed court documents. When the two Kenney & McCafferty-represented whistleblowers reported their concerns about illegal marketing practices they were witnessing in the field, GSK's top compliance executive, an attorney who now holds a similar position with another medical device manufacturer, became involved in and oversaw the ensuing internal investigation.
Instead of changing the illegal conduct,
the Company retaliated against the whistleblowers and they became the first to file an off-label marketing qui tam whistleblower Complaint against GSK. The original Complaint is
one of the first ever filed alleging prescription drug off-label promotion, Kenney said.
When the whistleblowers' Complaints were still under seal and being investigated by the government
GSK allegedly falsified and concealed documents in connection with an FDA inquiry into whether GSK marketed the antidepressant drug Wellbutrin off-label for weight loss, a central allegation in the whistleblowers' Complaints. That led to the indictment of a GSK associate corporate counsel, said Deming. Federal charges against the former associate general counsel later were subsequently dismissed by the court. (U.S. v. Lauren Stevens, District of Maryland)
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Read more here:
http://tinyurl.com/bwqbnym See this link to note where their political donations in the US went: (note they are a registered BRITISH Company). Also note the years - all together now "Obamacare."
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00199703This makes me want to puke! How truly sad and pathetic these greedy ba$tard$ really are. BAH!