Dirty medicine (Indian generic pharma fined $500m for fraudulent trials data)

On the morning of Aug. 18, 2004, Dinesh Thakur hurried to a hastily arranged meeting with his boss at the gleaming offices of Ranbaxy Laboratories in Gurgaon, India, 20 miles south of New Delhi.

His boss, Dr. Rajinder Kumar, Ranbaxy's head of research and development, had joined the generic-drug company just two months earlier from GlaxoSmithKline, where he had served as global head of psychiatry for clinical research and development.

Like Kumar, Thakur had left a brand-name pharmaceutical company for Ranbaxy. Thakur, then 35, an American-trained engineer and a naturalized U.S. citizen, had worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) in New Jersey for 10 years.

When he stepped into Kumar's office that morning, Thakur was surprised by his boss' appearance. He looked weary and uneasy, his eyes puffy and dark. He had returned the previous day from South Africa, where he had met with government regulators. It was clear that the meeting had not gone well.

The two men strolled into the hall to order tea from white-uniformed waiters. As they returned, Kumar said, "We are in big trouble," and motioned for Thakur to be quiet. Back in his office, Kumar handed him a letter from the World Health Organization. It summarized the results of an inspection that WHO had done at Vimta Laboratories, an Indian company that Ranbaxy hired to administer clinical tests of its AIDS medicine. The inspection had focused on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that Ranbaxy was selling to the South African government to save the lives of its AIDS-ravaged population.

As Thakur read, his jaw dropped. The WHO had uncovered what seemed to the two men to be astonishing fraud. The Vimta tests appeared to be fabricated. Test results from separate patients, which normally would have differed from one another, were identical, as if xeroxed.

A company that Fortune magazine says recalled its generic version of Lipitor in November 2012 because it was contaminated with glass particles, is the fourth fastest growing pharma company in the US.

AND PLACES LIKE THESE ARE WHERE OUR MEDS ARE COMING FROM TODAY, EXPRESS SCRIPTS IS PUSHING THE MAIL ORDER THINGY AGAIN AND AGAIN, ALL THEY CARRY IS GENERICS, YOU WON’T KNOW FROM ONE MONTH TO THE NEXT WHERE IT WAS MADE, FROM WHAT COMPANY OR COUNTRY. WANT YOUR MEDS TO SIT IN A MAIL BOX IF YOU ARE NOT HOME....BABY WE LIVE IN MEMPHIS THEY STEAL EVERY THING NOT NAILED DOWN.

2 posted on 05/24/2013 4:31:12 AM PDT by GailA (THOSE WHO DON'T KEEP PROMISES TO THE MILITARY, WON'T KEEP THEM TO U!)

WANT YOUR MEDS TO SIT IN A MAIL BOX IF YOU ARE NOT HOME....BABY WE LIVE IN MEMPHIS THEY STEAL EVERY THING NOT NAILED DOWN.

This is a good reason to get a PO Box. It's an inconvenience, but probably better than losing your mail.

3 posted on 05/24/2013 4:35:32 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)

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