UNITED STATES: Ex-Sales Director at Serono Pleads Guilty to Kickback

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

UNITED STATES: Ex-Sales Director at Serono Pleads Guilty to Kickback

Wall Street Journal (12.22.04) - Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Christopher Windham

Adam Stupak, a former sales director at a subsidiary of the Swiss biotechnology firm Ares-Serono SA, pleaded guilty to violating a US anti-kickback law by offering doctors free trips in exchange for writing more prescriptions of the AIDS drug Serostim. The guilty plea is the latest development in the ongoing investigation by the US attorney's office in Boston into Serono's marketing practices for Serostim, a drug approved to treat AIDS wasting.

Stupak's attorney, Evan Slavitt, said his client is cooperating with federal prosecutors. Stupak has also filed a civil lawsuit under seal in US District Court in Boston, claiming Serono reneged on paying legal fees in connection with the investigation.

According to charges filed last week in the court, Stupak and five other regional sales directors were instructed by senior Serono executives in 1999 to target top-prescribing doctors and persuade them to write more Serostim prescriptions under a program called the "$6m-6 Day Plan." The goal was to increase Serostim's sales by $6 million in six days. In exchange for writing the prescriptions, the doctors would receive a free trip to an AIDS conference in Cannes, France, valued at $5,000-$10,000, court documents filed by the US attorney said.

Stupak offered three New York City physicians - identified in the information as Drs. "O," "G" and "W" - the Cannes trip if they wrote at least 10 additional Serostim prescriptions. The US attorney said just one of the doctors, "W," wrote the extra prescriptions, and none attended the conference.

A spokesperson for Serono declined to comment on the investigation, citing company policy.
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