Pharmaceutical lawyer charged
November 11, 2010
OFFICIALS in the USA have
charged a lawyer for an unnamed
pharmaceutical company with
making false statements.
The US Department of Justice
charged Lauren Stevens of Durham,
New Carolina, with one count of
concealing and falsifying
documents to influence a federal
agency, one count of obstructing an
official proceeding and four counts
of making false statements to the
Food and Drug Administration.
The case relates to an Oct 2002
incident in which the FDA asked for
information about the company’s
promotion of a prescription drug
during a probe into whether it was
being used incorrectly.
In response to the FDA inquiry it’s
alleged that Stevens sent a series of
letters to the FDA which “falsely
denied that the company had
promoted the drug for off-label
purposes, even though she
knew...that the company had
sponsored numerous programs for
unapproved uses”.
“There is a difference between
legal advocacy based on the facts,
and distorting the facts to cover up
the truth,” said US Attorney
Carmen Ortiz.
“Federal agencies such as the
FDA cannot protect the public
health if the entities and individuals
they regulate provide false
information and conceal the true
facts,” she added.
The unidentified pharmaceutical
company has not been charged.
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