Four former Serono execs were just acquitted of offering kickbacks to docs for writing prescriptions for an AIDS drug with declining sales.

Two former vps - John Bruens of San Diego, and Mary Stewart of North Andover, Mass. - and two regional sales directors - Melissa Vaughn of Louisville, Colo., and Marc Sirockman of Flemington, N.J. - were indicted in April 2005 for offering and paying kickbacks to docs in the form of an all-expense paid trip to attend a medical conference in Cannes, France, in return for writing prescriptions for Serostim.

Prosecutors said the execs were trying to boost sales of Serostim, which was approved in 1996 for treating AIDS wasting, an often-fatal condition involving severe weight loss, which was common among AIDS patient at the time. But shortly afterwards, the FDA approved protease inhibitors, curtailing the virus and diminishing Serostim sales.

At a meeting in Boston in March 1999, Bruens and Stewart told Vaughn, Sirockman and several other regional sales directors that they needed to “dig their way out” of a financial crisis, according to the indictment. Under a sales plan, the sales directors were required to identify the highest prescribing physicians in their region and target them with free trips to boost prescriptions to a goal of $6 million in 6 days, prosecutors said.

A jury in U.S. District Court deliberated less than three hours before acquitting all four executives today. Vaughn’s attorney, Adam Hoffinger, said the trip was not offered in exchange for writing prescriptions for Serostim. “They had no intent to bribe any doctors, and they did not bribe any doctors,” he said. “It was a legitimate medical conference.”

All four left Serono in 1999 and 2000. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the acquittals. Serono is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and has its U.S. headquarters in Rockland, Mass.

In December 2005, Serono Laboratories agreed to pay $704 million fine to settle similar claims that it offered kickbacks to doctors in an effort to boost sagging sales of Serostim.

Source: The Boston Globe
[tags]Kickbacks, Serono, Serostim[/tags]