GSK Still Employs Executives Who Allegedly Ignored Fraud
David CallahanFive of the six senior GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) executives (uncovered by a whistleblower) involved in the cover-up of contamination problems at the group's Puerto Rico factory are understood to be still employed by the pharmaceuticals company.
Cheryl Eckard (who has a whistleblower recently received $96 million of the $750 million in fines) was fired from her position as quality control manager in 2003 after repeatedly raising her concerns with a series of GSK executives, stated that company executives had refused to acknowledge the gravity of the production violations through the belief that it would delay the approval of two new drugs by the FDA. The five executives still at the company and cited by Eckard to have been informed of the quality violations at the plant in Puerto Rico are as follows:
- David Pulman: President of global manufacturing and supply.
- Janice Whitaker: Senior vice president of global quality.
- Peter Savin: Vice president of global quality assurance.
- Diane Sevigny: Director of global quality assurance, risk management and compliance.
- Jonathan Box: Vice president of manufacturing and supply for North America.
More interestingly, Eckard also alleged that she told Diane Sevigny "that she would not participate in a cover-up … and would not take part in any further meetings with the FDA about the Cidra plant.” And the conflict continued thereafter with both disagreeing more frequently about GSK’s management of the quality and compliance problems at Cidra.
Of course, GSK denies all other wrongdoing, except for the five specific breaches associated with the fine.
Read the Eckard article here.
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