Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - December 8, 2006
Bernadette Tansey, btansey@sfchronicle.com.
"Gilead intends to comply with the U.S. attorney's subpoena and to cooperate in any related government investigation," the company said in a statement. A spokeswoman declined to comment further.
The U.S. attorney's office couldn't be reached for comment, and the nature of the investigation was not clear. In recent years, prosecutors have been cracking down on drug companies accused of deceptive marketing or violations of Food and Drug Administration rules that restrict the promotion of drugs for uses not approved by the agency.
In 2003, the FDA warned Gilead that its sales representatives were downplaying the risks and exaggerating the benefits of Viread. It was the second such warning issued to the company in just over a year.
Both state and federal prosecutors are investigating drugmakers for promotional practices that may have misrepresented the value of their products and needlessly increased expenditures by government-funded health plans. At the conclusion of one such investigation in 2004, Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay $430 million to settle claims that it promoted its anti-seizure drug Neurontin for a host of other diseases.
In the Bay Area, the government has cracked down on Brisbane-based Intermune Inc., which agreed in October to pay $36.9 million to settle claims by the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco that it illegally marketed its drug Actimmune for a fatal lung disorder.
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