GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints charging that the British firm knowingly sold contaminated baby ointment and an ineffective antidepressant for years.
The New York Times said the agreement was announced this afternoon by federal prosecutors in Boston and is “the latest in a growing number of whistle-blower lawsuits that drug makers have settled with multimillion dollar fines.”
This whistle-blower suit was brought by Cheryl Eckard, the company’s quality manager, who said she warned the firm of the problems but instead of dealing with the issues GlaxoSmithKline fired her.
“GlaxoSmithKline sold 20 drugs with questionable safety that were made at a huge plant in Puerto Rico that for years was rife with contamination,” the NY Times said on its Internet site. “Among the drugs affected were Avandia, Bactroban, Coreg, Paxil and Tagamet. No patients are known to have been sickened by the quality problems although such cases would be difficult to trace.”
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said today that as part of that settlement GlaxoSmithKline will pay Connecticut $1.72 million to settle allegations it sold tainted and defective drugs to the state Medicaid program.
GlaxoSmithKline allegedly sold Medicaid, whose cost is shared by the federal government and the states, four drugs that were defective or contaminated because of poor manufacturing practices at the company’s Cidra, Puerto Rico plant.
“GlaxoSmithKline’s dumping of defective drugs on Connecticut Medicaid recipients is shocking and shameful,” Blumenthal said. “Such massive failure to follow formulation and sanitation standards is unacceptable and inexplicable. The company endangered patient health — and pumped up profits — by providing tainted tablets.”
The four tainted drugs were:
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Paxil CR: A controlled-release antidepressant improperly formulated so recipients received no active ingredient or only the active ingredient without the controlled-release mechanism;
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Avandamet: A diabetes medication containing higher or lower amounts of the active ingredient than specified;
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Kytril: An anti-nausea drug labeled as sterile, but with some vials containing impurities;
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Bactroban: Antibiotic ointments and creams that, in some packages, were contaminated with microorganisms.
Glaxo whistle-blower gets $96 million.
The deal with Zyprexa is that Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to criminal wrongs (“viva Zyprexa” campaign) the Zyprexa saga was rotten through and through.
Eight Lilly EMPLOYEES got millions each as supposed informant ‘whistle blowers’.Lawyers on BOTH sides got millions and millions……most patient claimants who got sick are ‘mentally challenged’ and less able to advocate for themselves.
The Class action Lawsuits in the US had payouts of $85,000 BUT the lawyers got 45 percent and then the govt got most of the rest for having to take care of the victim/patients medical expenses.Soooo,,,,$85K turned into about $9,000 for Zyprexa claimants many had their food stamps and other state benefits taken away because of their *windfall profit* making them worse off in the end.
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Daniel Haszard Zyprexa victim activist and patient who got diabetes from it.