US Attorneys Probe Schering-Plough Over Vytorin
9 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // May 6th, 2008 // 8:04 pm
How many and from which offices? The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t specify. We asked a Schering-Plough spokeswoman for clarity, but until we receive a reply, we are left to wonder whether this involves a securities matter, healthcare reimbursement or, perhaps, both.
To an extent, this is not surprising. As Schering-Plough notes in the filing, “Schering-Plough, the joint venture and/or its joint venture partner, Merck, have received a number of governmental inquiries and have been the subject of a number of investigations” concerning Vytorin. And most, but not, all of this has already been widely reported.
“These include several letters from Congress, including the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, collectively seeking a combination of witness interviews, documents and information on a variety of issues” related since 2006 to the controversial Enhance trial, Vytorin promotion and advertising, and stock sales by execs, specifically, Schering-Plough’s Carrie Cox.
Who else is asking for info? The probes “also include several subpoenas from state officials, including State Attorneys General, and requests for information from US Attorneys seeking similar information and documents.” What we don’t understand is why Merck didn’t mention US Attorneys in its own quarterly filing made this week, unless the focus is on Schering-Plough exclusively at this point.
You may recall that, last month, Merck disclosed it expects equity income from the venture to fall by $700 million this year due to the hoopla over Vytorin. Unlike Merck, Schering-Plough has been unwilling to provide any numbers, probably because Schering-Plough is more vulnerable than Merck to a big drop in revenue.
That emerged on April 23 and, by the way, the next day, US Attorney Bob Kirsch of the Newark, New Jersey, office visited the Shearlings Got Plowed site after it ran a blow-by-blow of a Wall Street teleconference in which Hassan denied any such forecasts existed. Look here to see how Kirsch spent his sleuthing time.
condor
You are truly a gentleman, AND a scholar, Ed. . . .
A prince among men — thanks for the “mad-props”, man!
Okay everybody be careful out there. . . .
– condor
Solution
Pull the top executives in to testify under oath as to what they knew when. They’ll either tell the truth and take responsibility for their actions or they won’t tell the truth and face later charges of perjury. Either way, it’s winess testimony obtained directly from th top dogs in Kenilworth that is needed to break this case.
SP 1
My guess is that there will plenty to find in the HQ facility. I think that they can also find out a whole lot more if they start asking the right questions to the right people. In this case, the right people seem to be the top dogs. And if they are so bold as to deny everything, there’s plenty more that will no doubt be willing to come forth and tell what they know.
Shadow
Look at that face! Do you trust this man? I know I don’t! It appears that he’s not willing to come clean on anything. It seems that all anybody gets is the runaround. He may make a good used-car salesman, but, in my opinion, he’s done little for Schering-Plough except cut costs and employees everywhere he can.
David
Fred Hassan appears to be a slick spin-master. Fool me once (AHP), shame on you. Fool me twice (Pharmacia), shame on me. Fool me thrice (Schering-Plough), shame on who? It seems that Fred has no shame as evidenced by the information just released regarding his new stock awards on top of what appears to be massive over-payment for the past 5 years!
Peter Rost
I can’t help but note that the NJ US assistant attorney was “referred to” http://shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/ from http://peterrost.blogspot.com/ and
:))
Peter Rost
I can’t help but note that the NJ US assistant attorney was “referred to” http://shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/ from http://peterrost.blogspot.com/
:))
Fortune Teller
If they keep looking, I’m sure they’ll find plenty of great interest. The worst for SP appears to be yet to come.
SP 2
I applaud these activities. From what I’ve seen and heard in the past several months, they are absolutely appropriate. There appear to be a lot of questions that need to be answered by Schering-Plough.