Woo Hoo! U.S. Targets Drug Executives - Law Allows Courts to Hold Corporate Officials Responsible for Pharma Violations

BY VANESSA O'CONNELL AND MICHAEL ROTHFELD

U.S. authorities are stepping up enforcement of a little-used law—the so-called "responsible corporate officer doctrine"—to hold executives personally and criminally responsible for corporate violations of U.S. food and drug laws.

The development has triggered a new wave of worry among defense lawyers representing health-care executives.

Congress authorized criminal sanctions against corporate officers in 1938 under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

The Supreme Court has since interpreted the law to allow prosecutions without evidence that executives knew a crime was committed—a lower standard than for other industries.

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