GlaxoSmithKline Whistleblower: False-Claims Lawsuit Involving Well-Known Medications Including Avandia and Paxil
GlaxoSmithKline Whistleblower: False-Claims Lawsuit Involving Popular Medicines Including Avandia and Paxil
A few months ago, pharmaceutical maker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay out $750 million to resolve a U.S. govt false-claims lawsuit over charges that the organization knowingly made and sold adulterated drugs. The affected drug treatments included in the suit included the common antidepressant Paxil and the
type II diabetes medication Avandia
This week, the whistleblower responsible for bringing to light the issues a Glaxo plant has, that resulted in the false-claims lawsuit, spoke out for the first time on 60 minutes. In her interview, Cheryl Eckard, former Glaxo global quality assurance manager, made public the obvious disregard shown by the company for the safety and quality of the products they manufacture.
Cheryl Eckard first learned of issues when she was sent to evaluate a Glaxo factory in Cidra, Puerto Rico and noted numerous production problems causing some drugs to become tainted, mislabeled, or incorrectly dosed. Eckard told 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley “All the systems were in poor condition, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career.”
Eckard alleges that after eight months of reporting these issues without company reply, she formulated a chart for Glaxo executives displaying nine problem areas at the Cidra plant. The chart involved allegations that production problems at the plant were causing strong prescription drugs to be mixed together in the same bottles.
Based on Eckard, her claims continued to be dismissed; and after a pharmacist reported a mix-up involving incorrectly labeled Paxil prescribed to an 8-year-old boy, the drug company filed a report with the FDA stating it was extremely unlikely that the drug mix-up took place at Cidra. Cheryl Eckard was let go shortly after her letter to company executives detailing situations at Cidra. After Eckard was fired, she brought her complaints to the FDA.
In 2005, Cidra was raided and Federal investigators stated that the state of affairs found at the Glaxo factory were far from meeting general public health standards. Cidra was close down in 2009 and is no longer owned by GlaxoSmithKline.
Under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers like Eckard may be entitled to receive a portion of any money that the government recovers from the offenders. In order to receive a portion of the recovered money, the whistleblower must be the first to bring the case to the government’s attention, and must not publicize the claim until the DOJ decides to prosecute the claim. Cheryl Eckard received a record $96 million from the settlement.
Whistleblower Lawsuits on the Rise
Dependant on consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, the pharmaceutical industry has surpassed the defense sector to develop into the leading defrauder of the federal government. There have been 165 pharmaceutical industry settlements with the federal government over fraud fees in the last 20 years and drug companies have paid out a total of $19.8 billion in Settlements; 73% of those cases, and 75% of that money, have happened in just the last 5 years. This increase in payments for fraud is likely due to both an increase in wrongdoing on the part of drug companies and better enforcement by the state and federal government. More than half of the pharmaceutical industry’s penalties have been paid by just four companies: GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Schering-Plough.
A public citizen report showed that from 1991 to 2000, whistleblower lawsuits accounted for only 9% of federal fraud settlements, however, from 2001 through 2010, they accounted for 67%. Whistleblowers like Cheryl Eckerd are one of the only ways for the government, and the public, to find out about potentially disastrous problems like those at GlaxoSmithKline, that threaten the safety of widely prescribed drugs like Paxil and Avandia. Patient advocates hope that Cheryl Eckerd making her story public, as well as her generous reward, will encourage others to hold these pharmaceutical giants to the huge responsibilities they undertake when manufacturing medicines for the nation.
Avandia Lawsuits have been filed by many plaintiffs that suffered a variety of side effects of Avandia. Each Avandia Lawsuitsfiled has added to the final settlement amount that GSK is likely to pay out to resolve suits that continue to be filed by Avandia Lawyers at Parliman and Associates.
Most Paxil Lawsuits have been ,Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuits. Every Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuit filed also adds to the future amount GSK will ultimately pay out to resolve all of thePaxil Birth Defect Lawsuits it now faces. Numerous Paxil Lawyers, as they are often referred to by the public, expect to file future lawsuits on behalf of clients that have given birth to an infant with Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuits. Parliman and Associates plans to represent clients Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuits as long as the issue of Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuitscontinues to exist.
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