November 9, 2010 11:50 AM
BREAKING: Ropes & Gray, Steptoe Representing GSK In-House Lawyer Charged by Feds
Posted by Brian Baxter
Lauren Stevens, vice president and associate general counsel at GlaxoSmithKline in Raleigh-Durham, has been charged by federal prosecutors with obstruction of justice and making false statements during an FDA probe into the company's promotion of a prescription drug.
The Justice Department announced Stevens's indictment on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., although the charges against the GSK in-house lawyer were filed in U.S. district court in Maryland, where the FDA is based. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office in Boston and the civil division's office of consumer litigation at Main Justice.
Ropes & Gray litigation partners Brien O'Connor in Boston and Colleen Conroy in Washington, D.C., are representing Stevens along with Steptoe & Johnson partners Reid Weingarten and William Hassler. A call to GSK was also not immediately returned.
Prosecutors allege that Stevens impeded an FDA inquiry in 2002 into unapproved uses of an unnamed prescription drug.
"There is a difference between legal advocacy based on the facts and distorting the facts to cover up the truth," said a statement by Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. "Federal agencies such as the FDA cannot protect the public health if the entities and individuals they regulate provide false information and conceal the true facts."
Last month GSK agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints accusing the company of selling tainted drugs from a shuttered factory in Puerto Rico.
The U.S. attorney's office in Boston has been among the most active in prosecuting alleged misdeeds in the pharmaceutical industry, securing settlements with Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Pfizer.
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Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Ropes & Gray, Steptoe Representing GSK In-House Lawyer Charged by Feds
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