Pharmaceutical giant Allergan Inc. has tried to keep secret details of its deal with The University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc. for a drug that’s earned it more than a billion dollars.
As recently as March 18, Allergan filed briefs in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court opposing the unsealing of what it calls “commercially-sensitive documents because the harm that Allergan would thereby suffer greatly outweighs any purported public interest in the contents of the documents.”
However, Judge David Sweat, in an Aug. 12 interview with Atlanta Business Chronicle, said he would begin the process of unsealing almost all of the documents, saying his previous orders to seal “met criteria for conditions that no longer exist as to almost all of the material.” That follows a July 14 hearing in which Sweat said “basically, I think we’re about to unseal these records.”
A transcript of an April 24, 2007, hearing refers to documents that describe how Allergan orchestrated what the judge referred to as “a bad deal” for the foundation — one in which it will gain $72 million instead of a potential $294 million, according to an analysis done by the plaintiff in the case, former UGA researcher Renee Kaswan.
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1 comment:
The sealing of documents in cases such like this is completely pointless. It's an indication that the DOJ is protecting such a corporation. If the evidence is overwhelming, verified, duplicated, and especially is annotated without alteration, no analysis is needed of these documents.
In some if not many cases, sealed documents reflect the likelihood that the wrongdoer has and is possibly if not likely causing harm to the public, yet sealed documents remain that way for years most of the time.
Read the Zyprexa previously sealed documents that are now accessible to the public if they know where to look. No trade secrets were revealed. No recipe for the medication was disclosed. Only crime.
The whole system clearly and overtly illustrates the intimate relationship between the lawmakers and the corporations. It's collusive, and it is cronyism.
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