The AstraZeneca Scandal: The Group of 7
2 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 12th, 2007 // 2:26 pm
An alleged AstraZeneca employee, or perhaps seven alleged AstraZeneca employees, earlier today sent a note to Peter Rost, the former Pfizer exec turned whistleblower, about accusations of illegal marketing at AstraZeneca.
This comes less than a week after AstraZeneca fired a regional sales manager for wayward and crass comments in a company newsletter, which Rost posted and was later described by the company as ‘unapproved.’ Earlier today, Pharmalot spoke with the fired employee, Mike Zubillaga who made his first public remarks since the scandal broke.
The authors and content have not been verified. Rost received the infamous newsletter from an AstraZeneca employee and has implied this comes from the same source. Given the level of interest in the scandal, here’s the note:
—-Original Message Follows—-
From: REDACTED
To: rostpeter@hotmail.com
Subject: AstraZeneca’s “Group of Seven”
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:09:23 +0900
We are a group of 7 honest AstraZeneca employees scattered around headquarters and field sales.Our goal is for AstraZeneca to once again become an ethical pharmaceutical company.
We have been reporting unethical behavior to the Code of Conduct hotline (888 244-1769) for years. However, the company continues to violate policies developed under the HHS OIG Corporate Integrity Agreement. We are afraid that AZ is not properly notifying OIG of these reports, and have begun to copy OIG (800-447-8477) on everything we submit.
For the most part, the policy violations that we see come from management, and resistance from underlings is met with swift retaliation. Anonymity is essential.
Our main concern with the Mid-Atlantic Oncology Newsletter was actually its directive to misbrand anastrozole by “selling against letrozole” without approved material, head to head studies or data in our prescribing information. The RSD’s statements were crude, but not illegal.
We would like to encourage all workers to stand up and report unethical behavior by managers to the Code of Conduct hotline. One of the first directives in our compliance policy is that you have a “duty to report” illegal activity.
*Letrozole is Femara, a Novartis drug.
Source: Peter Rost[tags]AstraZeneca, Mike Zullibaga, Peter Rost[/tags]
Pharm Aid
Interesting concept, but where’s the beef?
Lots of talk and very little substance so far. Where I come from, that’s not whistleblowing, it’s just complaining.
It would have been a really nice entrance into the world if they posted some juicy information or something of substance. I’m taking the wait-and-see approach until it doesn’t smell like a hoax.
JS
If you work for a large Pharmaceutical company you understand they are retaliatory by nature. Their ultimate goal is to discredit the messenger which can be a harrowing experience. My experience also tells me these people are real and have decided the company has not followed up with complaints or “complaining”. There is a CIA in place so the only recourse you have is to call the hotline and complain. You state the facts and pray someone doesn’t figure out who you are. It is company policy not to divulge action they may or may not have taken. The company will say these reports are confidential and any relaliation as a result is against company policy which begs the questions. If the information is confidential who might retaliate? How is retaliation defined? Retaliation as newly defined by the Supreme Court takes many forms and is actionable so here you go complaining again. As an ethical person you tried to do the right thing but you may find as a result you are singled out as a big mouth. In many cases you might be used as an example to keep your mouth closed and look the other way. I know how hard it is and how frustrating this issue is to many. You have to be prepared to leave your career for doing the right thing. I personally became very frustrated and reached out to Peter Rost and then decided to vent my frustration on a blog. So while I await the future it is not a good idea to release documents nor would I ask anyone else to do that before the lawyers finish with the process of sorting it out. These companies could fix this quickly with minimal cost if they were to set up a mediation process which would allow for dialogue for people who feel they have a valid complaint. There is so much mystery surrounding the process that I am not surprised these seven reached out to Peter he would be my choice too.
JS