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| Ahem, um...it was just part of an era |
There's something about this company that really makes me laugh.
Coming on the back of Andrew Witty's infamous "It was just part of an era" comment regarding the $3billion fine slammed down on his company, comes yet more shenanigans, this time in China where Glaxo are accused of bribing doctors with cash and other perks for prescribing Botox and tried to cover their tracks by using private email.
It's alleged that Glaxo's sales staff in China were instructed by local managers to use their personal email addresses to discuss marketing strategies related to Botox. In the personal emails, sales staff discussed rewarding doctors for prescribing Botox with cash payments and other rewards.
All of these shenanigans, according to a whistleblower, went on between the years 2004 and 2010 - still, all part of an era eh Andy?
More here.
Just as the dust settled on that breaking news comes another lawsuit against the British pharmaceutical giant.
Law360, the online subscription service for the legal profession, is reporting that a GSK sales director is claiming he was fired for being a man.
Joseph Cappellino filed his suit against GSK in the Superior Court of New Jersey on June 14.
Cappellino claims that he was pushed out and replaced by a young woman who, to his knowledge, had no sales management experience.
The case is Joseph Cappellino v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC, et al., case number L-001643-13
Poor guy but he must surely know how Glaxo operate?
If bribes don't work then maybe a pair of tits will.
Speaking of which...
I see Witty's good friend, Deidre Connolly is making the kind of promises that Witty made after the $3billion fine. In an interview with the New York Times Connolly describes how both she and Witty shared coffee [how romantic] after she had read an article about him.
Soon after that meeting Connolly joined forces with Witty.
She told the NYT, "Our company is facing a changing health care market that demands higher-quality care, lower costs and better outcomes. As part of rethinking and redesigning our commercial model in the United States, we have revamped our procedures for training, evaluating and compensating our 5,000 sales people.
"This was under way when, last year, the company paid $3 billion in fines to the federal government because it had earlier promoted some antidepressants for unapproved uses and failed to report the status of studies about our diabetes drug. We are committed to ensuring that this never happens again."
Ha! it was much more than promoting antidepressants and failing to report studies or was that spin at work, you know, hiding that one little word 'fraud'. Connolly failed to mention the kickbacks her company gave to doctors and, according to China, it's still very much a pastime of GSK sales managers and reps.
GlaxoSmithKline are a British pharmaceutical company who operate globally, they proudly boast to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer... the Chinese doctors would certainly agree with that!
Bob Fiddaman
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