Dr Rost first approached Pharmacia management in the fall of 2001, and in February 2002, the company started an internal investigation. In March, the firm's Associate General Counsel informed Dr Rost that she had found that marketing director, Carl Worrell, had engaged in gross misconduct relating to the off-label promotion and that he was not forthcoming during the investigation. Based on their concerns, a decision was made to terminate Worrell's employment in April 2002.
After he left, Dr Rost discovered documents that showed that Pharmacia had been actively engaged in the off-label marketing since at least 2000. In one example, Dr William Abelove, an anti-aging doctor at a longevity center, had sent a letter to Pharmacia CEO, Fred Hassan, in 2000, and wanted to purchase Genotropin at a discount rate. Mr Hassan forwarded the letter to the marketing departments and by May 1, 2000, Worrell had signed a consulting contract with Dr Abelove to assist in the promotion of Genotropin.
In effort to ensure that the off-label promotion was terminated, Dr Rost sent an email to the associate director of marketing and her product managers and explained his concerns about continued payments and consultancy agreements, and instructed them not to approve any additional payments without seeing him first.
The same month, Dr Rost received a short debriefing of the internal legal review and was assured that appropriate corrective action had been taken.
In July 2002, Pfizer announced the friendly take-over of Pharmacia. With this merger, it became clear to Mr Rost that he would have to address his concerns with Pfizer's management team. To prepare, Dr Rost started to research the legal statutes related to growth hormones and the False Claims Act, and other laws Pharmacia may have violated.
During the time period of July through September 2002, Dr Rost continued to receive reports about discoveries of kick-backs paid to doctors.
On October 28, 2002, Mr Rost and several marketing directors participated in a meeting with Pfizer that included employees from Pfizer's medical, marketing, regulatory and legal department, as well as Judith Tytel, Pharmacia's Senior Corporate Counsel.
The meeting was intended to be an opportunity for Pharmacia employees to provide information to their Pfizer counterparts. At the meeting Dr Rost and his team disclosed that Pharmacia was sponsoring all-expense paid junkets for physicians and that Pharmacia maintained a data base, known as the Bridge Program, that contained detailed information regarding the 30,000 patients who received Genotropin prescriptions.
They also explained that payments were being made to US doctors and discussed how the Bridge Program supplied new patients with free Genotropin for several months while the company assisted in seeking reimbursement.
Following the meeting, several Pfizer executives asked for more information and on November 8, 2002, Dr Rost and several directors, and Associate General Counsel, met with Pfizer representatives and lawyers and reviewed the Bridge Program.
During this time, Dr Rost continued to discuss his concerns with executives and lawyers at Pharmacia and believed that the company was concerned about the potential legal exposure related to the off-label sale of Genotropin.
In response to continued reports indicating illegal activities, Dr Rost repeatedly tried to implement corrective measures. However, he learned that the corporate culture at Pharmacia made it impossible to eliminate illegal conduct because of the financial incentives that drove sales reps to continue it.
Through further investigation, Dr Rost learned that the illegal activities started long before he arrived, and as far back as 1997. He came to conclude that at times, company officers condoned the activities despite knowing that they were illegal.
On April 16, 2003, the merger between Pfizer and Pharmacia was final. Pharmacia directors and officers realized enormous financial benefits. CEO Fred Hassan, received a $9.9 million severance package, 9 other directors received packages worth, in the aggregate, $31.6 million, and company directors were able to obtain early vesting of approximately 6.7 million in stock options.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
