Drug Executive Indicted
Apr 24 2008
Federal prosecutors indicted a high-ranking pharmaceutical executive today for allegedly lying to regulators about a patent agreement involving the popular blood-thinning drug Plavix, which is used by heart-attack, stroke, and other patients.
Prosecutors charged Andrew Bodnar, former senior vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb, with lying to the Federal Trade Commission about what representations he made during negotiations with a rival company, Apotex.
According to the one-count indictment, Bodnar reassured Apotex during a 2006 meeting that Bristol would not launch a generic version of Plavix if Apotex agreed to a settlement that delayed the launch of its Plavix generic until 2011.
At the time, Apotex and Bristol were in litigation over the validity of Plavix's patent and were negotiating a settlement. The stakes are high because Plavix is the most widely prescribed blood-thinning drug. Some 48 million Americans take it daily to prevent potentially fatal blood clots, generating $3.5 billion in sales in the United States alone in 2005.
At the same time, Bristol-Myers was bound by a separate, unrelated consent decree with the F.T.C. that required the New York company to submit any proposed patent settlements for review and approval.
The commission had warned that it would not approve a settlement of the litigation if Bristol agreed not to compete in the Plavix generic market by not launching its own generic version.
Bodnar was charge with violating the Federal False Statements Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
"Lying to the federal government is a serious felony that obstructs the law- enforcement process," said Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
Last June, Bristol agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine for misleading the government about the Plavix patent deal.
