Amphastar Pharmaceuticals SPIED On FDA Directors To Help Win Approval For Drug

politico.com:

For more than two months in late 2008, private investigators working for a drug company gathered information on a high-ranking official at the Food and Drug Administration -- unearthing details about her husband, two daughters, and in-laws, and re-tracing her steps on a business trip she took to Thailand.

The drug company, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc., paid more than $100,000 to Kroll, the New York-based private investigative firm, to uncover the information about Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, who overees the agency's new-drug approvals.

Read the whole story: politico.com

Comments

[hellboundtrain]

07:12 AM on 04/03/2010

Alls fair in drugs and war!

[jsgaetano]

01:10 PM on 04/02/2010

And I'm willing to bet nobody will be punished for this.

There are two "justice" systems in America- one for politicans, their friends & families, and the wealthy. Then, there's the system all the "little people" have to use.

[Beth Boyle]

12:27 AM on 04/02/2010

This hardly surprises me.

[blueken]

09:19 AM on 04/01/2010

My biggest beef with the drug companies is the fact that the United States pays more for drugs than any other modern industrial country in the world. England, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain all negotiate with the drug companies with the buying power of millions and millions of customers. That's why people go to Canada to buy prescription medicines cheaper than they can buy them here. That's why they sell Viagara at the airport in Cancun cheaper than you can buy it here. They use our roads, police, fire departments, laws and then charge us more? There should be law that a drug company can't charge anyone more for a drug than those people in the EU do.

[schatsie]

10:49 PM on 03/31/2010

and just think about this, this activity was taxpayer subsidized because by gosh it was a legitimate so called business expense and the TAXPAYER GETS TO PICK up the tab for the avoided taxes.......

[LeeCalif]

08:38 PM on 03/31/2010

" Melanie Haiken, a San Francisco-based freelance reporter, wrote to the FDA. “As a journalist, I am primarily engaged in disseminating information.”

Haiken lied to the FDA and received reduced rates for the copying of the material she was hired to request on behalf of the drug company.

What a fraud.

[genuflex]

12:38 AM on 04/03/2010

Hard to imagine the copy fees were an issue if they paid $100,000. She is a real journalist and she didn't have to disclose that to get the information from the FDA so she seems straight up. Probably thought she would get a real award winning story. And if she found corruption we would all be siging about how great she is. Doesn't look to me like she did anything wrong. We need more aggressive reporting like this and not the "fair and balanced" stuff we get on fox.

[talkofliberty]

05:08 PM on 03/31/2010

I just wrote how we need to make the FDA voluntary. Then we will be better off.

http://talkofliberty.com

[schatsie]

10:50 PM on 03/31/2010

Oh my gosh, even in the progressive city of Charleston SC, they knew about regulating SNAKE OIL in 1803......

[ChelseaC]

04:13 PM on 03/31/2010

Big Shocker here--not!

Everyone here needs to read Former Editor in Cheif of the New England Journal of Medicine,
Dr. Marcia Angell's book "THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES."

Big Pharma was also VERY influencial as a part of crafting the so-called health care reform bill that just passed. Big Pharma was happy with the deal--that sends a message in and of itself.

Big Pharma remains with no drug caps(unlike the rest of the countries in the world) under this bill-- and pushes generic companies to the curb with the help of Obama et al.

Generics Chafe Under Big Pharma's Reform:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/26-1

In this "reform" bill--Big Pharma and the insurance cartel came out on top and in the driver's seat.

To learn more about REAL health CARE reform from doctors who want to change this corrupt for-profit insurance cartel system,
please visit:
http://www.pnhp.org/

[WA-violins]

03:17 PM on 03/31/2010

"Shandell said the investigation was limited to public records, database searches and other information available to the general public."

If they were looking only for information available to the general puplic, why was it necessary to pay $100K to a private detective agency & get a journalist to do a bogus request for "freedom of information" access?

Sure sounds like hunting for blackmail info to me.

[NHGranite]

04:26 PM on 03/31/2010

Damn, I look up public records all the time - you would be amazed at what is available for free! But nobody is paying me $100000; bet somebody could even get your Social Security number for that kind of cash@

[jezzabella]

02:19 PM on 03/31/2010

"“I feel like, as a citizen, you have a right to question your government and a right to look at public information,” said Amphastar’s general counsel, Jason Shandell. “There was no impropriety here.”

"unearthing details about her husband, two daughters, and in-laws, and re-tracing her steps on a business trip she took to Thailand." This sounds like looking for dirt for BLACKMAIL.

[mongus]

01:38 PM on 03/31/2010

It's time that we investigate the Health Insurance and Pharma companies and shun them until that investigation is complete.

Every minute they spend lobbying delutes every American's vote.

OK, who in our government has the BALL$ to initiate this investigation?

[melton244]

12:46 PM on 03/31/2010

The BIG Pharmaceutical Industry controls the FDA lot, stock and barrel.

[pragmaticdallasite]

12:25 PM on 03/31/2010

I was initially upset until I continued reading the article. It stated:

" In 1989, three FDA officials pleaded guilty to taking bribes and two companies said they had submitted false information to the government in a scandal that rocked the pharmaceutical world. And that scandal came to light only because an aggrieved drug company had hired private investigators to dig into suspicious relationships."

Now I'm not sure.

[jezzabella]

02:22 PM on 03/31/2010

That may be, but investigating an FDA employee's mother-in-law's second cousin's children is a little intrusive.

[pragmaticdallasite]

11:56 PM on 03/31/2010

They went that far? Well that is a bit much....lmao.

[guveqzero]

12:07 PM on 03/31/2010

I haven't heard of these tatics openly used since the oil and energy companies. It means that they have started to protect their business model at any price. In Capitalism, companies are supposed to adapt to change and not dictate change. Whenever an industry spends time on monitoring individuals, it is time to break them up using the anti-trust laws. This is how our democracy works. Unfortunately, the people need to be reminded every year since we are a little forgetful when it comes to dealing with these zombie companies.

[blueken]

11:34 AM on 03/31/2010

The FDA is chuck full of former drug company execs. Just like the Fed is mostly ex bankers. It's like going to a wedding to look for a wife.