In October 2010, GlaxoSmithKline and one of its subsidiaries paid $750 million to settle False Claims Act liability stemming from the manufacturing of adulterated drugs at a plant in Puerto Rico. Read about the details here.
The relator in that case, Cheryl Eckard, was recently interviewed on CBS’s 60 Minutes. In her interview, Eckard talks about what she saw when she visited the plant: tainted water, unsanitary conditions, and, most egregiously, the mixing of different medicines. After the visit, Eckard took her findings to the vice president for quality and asked that he shut down the plant. He didn’t. After eight months of reporting problems at the plant, Eckard lost her job, and she turned over the information she had to the Food and Drug Administration and got a lawyer who brought a False Claims Act lawsuit. Eckard was awarded $96 million.
Because of Eckard and whistleblowers like her, companies know that they have to take patient safety seriously, a benefit for everyone. Otherwise, they can end up with a catastrophic loss, myriad bad press, and loss of consumer trust—like GlaxoSmithKline.
