Whistleblower Says Meningitis-Linked Pharmacy Ignored His Warnings

April 15, 2013

Whistleblower Joe Connolly appeared on 60 Minutes to accuse his former employer, the compounding pharmacy linked to 53 deaths from fungus-tainted shots, of ignoring warnings and destroying evidence of contamination at its lab.

Connolly, a lab technician and former employee of the New England Compounding Center (NECC), told the CBS News program that his supervisor literally shrugged when Connolly told him last year that the lab was overextended and likely to start making mistakes. Mold had been found in NECC’s “clean room” about a dozen times over three years, Connolly said.

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Federal Times Quotes The Employment Law Group® Managing Principal R. Scott Oswald on Recent Lawsuit Filed by FDA Whistleblowers

February 06, 2012

R. Scott Oswald, Managing Principal of the The Employment Law Group® law firm, was recently interviewed by Federal Times, a weekly newspaper focused on providing insight into issues affecting U.S. government managers and other decision makers.

On January 25, 2012, six current and former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees filled a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the FDA violated their constitutional privacy rights. The employees claim that the FDA monitored the employees’ emails sent from private accounts over a period of two years. The lawsuit also alleges that the employees were targeted for their whistle-blowing after they expressed concern to Congress that the FDA has approved purportedly unsafe medical devices.

The FDA terminated two of the employees and did not renew the contracts of another two following the whistleblowers’ decision to come forward and report the approval of medical products they believed were unsafe.

Responding to the FDA’s alleged intrusion into the whistleblowers’ private emails, Mr. Oswald told the Federal Times:

“I think the FDA went too far in its zeal to monitor these employees. Employers who access [and] retain emails or other electronic stored information from a third-party server risk violating an employee’s privacy interest.”

The article, “When Can Agencies Monitor Your Email? FDA Case Sparks Debate Over Policy”, appeared in the February 5, 2012 edition of the Federal Times.

The Employment Law Group® law firm has an extensive nationwide whistleblower practice representing employees who have been victims of retaliation.

Ranbaxy Laboratories to Pay $500 Million in Settlement with Food and Drug Administration

December 28, 2011

Last week, India’s largest drug manufacturer, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., announced that it had entered into a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and had set aside a provision of $500 million to cover any liability arising out of a separate investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The consent decree comes after a 2008 decision by the FDA to ban dozens of Ranbaxy’s generic drugs from entering the US due to alleged violations of FDA manufacturing and quality standards at two of Ranbaxy’s plants in India. Additionally, the FDA alleged that Ranbaxy had falsified data about the shelf life, ingredients, and stability of certain medications including drugs that were to be distributed to foreign countries as part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program (PEPFAR).

According to the consent decree, Ranbaxy has agreed to strengthen its compliance with industry standards. While the agreement is not an approval for Ranbaxy to resume manufacturing and importing drugs to the U.S., it will allow the company to seek FDA approval to resume importing pharmaceuticals produced at the two allegedly tainted factories. The consent decree is pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The $500 million reserve is intended to cover any of Ranbaxy’s potential civil and criminal liability.

Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo Co. acquired a majority stake in Ranbaxy in 2008 and has announced that it expects its net income to decline over 60% in the coming year due to Ranbaxy’s settlement with the DOJ. Some analysts have predicted that the settlement may wipe out Ranbaxy’s expected profits for the next two years. Because of the $500 million provision and the decreased profit forecasts, Daiichi Sankyo Co. has decided to cut executive pay for six months.