Pharmaceutical Whistleblowers to Share Millions From GSK Settlement

As a reward for blowing the whistle on illegal drug marketing practices at GlaxoSmithKline, four former employees will split an estimated $250 million dollars. 

Former Glaxo employees Blair Hamrick, Thomas Gerahty, Matthew Burke and Greg Thorpe are expected to receive a share of money collected by the federal government as a result of a $3 billion settlement was reached with the pharmaceutical company earlier this month for illegal marketing schemes designed to increase sales of Avandia, Paxil and Wellbutrin beyond their FDA approved uses.

Under the terms of the deal, which represents the largest settlement for healthcare fraud in U.S. history, Glaxo will pay a total of $1 billion to resolve criminal charges, including a fine of $956,814,400, and another $2 billion to resolve civil claims under the federal government’s False Claims Act.

The case stemmed from a pharmaceutical whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Glaxo employees under the Federal False Claims Act, a U.S. law dating back to the Civil War. Under the qui tam provisions of the law, whistleblowers are entitled to receive a portion of any recovery in return for being the first to bring the case to the government’s attention and not publicizing the lawsuit until the Department of Justice decides whether to prosecute the claim.

According to the claim, GlaxoSmithKline illegally promoted their blockbuster antidepressant drug Paxil for treating depression in children from April 1998 to August 2003. However, the FDA had not approved it for use by anyone under the age of 18.

The drug maker also promoted another of their antidepressants, Wellbutrin, from January 1999 to December 2003, for weight loss and the treatment of sexual dysfunction, as well as for substance addictions and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although the medication was only approved for treatment of major depressive disorder.

The settlement also resolves claims involving the controversial diabetes drug Avandia, which GlaxoSmithKline was accused of trying to secretly market for uses other than what it was approved for.  The DOJ began investigating GSK in 2004, for both off-label marketing and Medicaid fraud.