Here’s the rundown: the drugmaker financially backed and sold large quantities of its prescription diet pill to the operator of a chain of private UK diet clinics in spite of suspicions, at one point, that the pills were being sold illegally, according to The Financial Times.

Although neither doctor nor pharmacist, Robin Huxley was sold Xenical by Roche’s UK subsidiary over a long period, even after its own undercover operations showed he was prescribing the drug himself and raised concerns that he was selling it on in the grey market. For its part, Roche says there was no reason to suspect Huxley wasn’t a pharmacist, or that he wasn’t legally qualified to sell the drug, the Times writes.

The revelations, contained in internal company documents submitted to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal brought by Roche’s former UK head of regulatory affairs, Ryta Kuzel, show Roche also agreed to pay Huxley about $107,000 to help “support” the purchase of another diet clinic after he explained it would increase sales of Xenical under his management. UK law, the Times notes, tightly restricts who can sell and prescribe medicines, while the pharmaceutical industry’s code of practice forbids the provision of financial incentives to boost prescriptions.

Huxley, who for some reason is also known as Rob Harrison, was investigated by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and pleaded guilty in December to violations of the 1968 Medicines Act restricting the wholesale dealing and sale of prescription drugs. He is due for sentencing this month, the paper writes. Roche says it was the “victim of criminal activity” and told the Times: “There has never been any suggestion by the MHRA of any wrongdoing by Roche in relation to this case.” And the drugmaker insists med sales are no longer made directly to private diet clinics.

A report written by one of the company’s staff posing as a new client in May 2003 describes how Huxley personally sold him Xenical. “To a lay person he would have passed as a doctor,” he wrote. Roche staff later said they were satisfied by their audits and approved continued supplies of the drug at a discount to the NHS price.

Another document describing the “private clinic funding proposal” says Huxley requested the company’s help “in supporting the purchase of particular clinics”, adding that he believed “this undoubtedly makes switching to Xenical easier”.

Roche argues it was “standard commercial practice” to monitor a new market. After several visits it was “satisfied that the clinics were being run properly and the demand for our medicine was genuine…We were concerned about the volume of Xenical being used and had no reason to suspect that the staff running the clinic were not genuine.”

Roche said it paid the first portion of the grant to Huxley, but had no ownership stake and the money was “for sponsorship and set-up of (a clinic) which we believed to be…legitimate…The funding was unrestricted and in no way linked to the prescribing of Xenical.”

Hat tip to Pharmagossip