Pharmacist Convicted Over Conflicts Of Interest
10 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 24th, 2008 // 8:25 am
A judge has convicted a former state pharmacist on felony conflict of interest charges for taking payments from drugmakers and pocketing money for supervising pharmacy interns from Duquesne University, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Steven Fiorello, 61, could face up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines for each of two felony convictions. His lawyer says an appeal has not been decided.
Fiorello was director of pharmacy for the Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Mental Health, Substance and Abuse Services and was secretary of a committee that approved Medicaid-paid drugs in state hospitals, prisons and juvenile centers. He paid more than $27,000 in civil fines after the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission cited him for state ethics violations in connection with the same allegations in 2005.
Attorney General Tom Corbett filed criminal charges against Fiorello a year later, accusing him of accepting money from drugmakers for consulting work, honorariums and trips between 1998 and 2003, while he was the secretary of a panel that oversaw Medicaid drug guidelines for state hospitals.
The complaint said Fiorello accepted perks from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, which were promoting the use of psychiatric drugs in state hospitals. And he used his position to pocket $2,400 from Duquesne University for supervising pharmacy interns at state hospitals between 2000 and 2003, prosecutors said.
Fiorello was convicted on a third, misdemeanor count for failing to file a full accounting of his outside income on his state ethics disclosure forms. “We’re very pleased with this outcome,” Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Harter Eshbach tells the paper. “We would not have brought criminal charges if we had not felt they were justified, over and above the ethics case.”
Salmon
Let’s hope this the beginning of vindication for Allen Jones.
Salmon
Pseudonym taken in part in honor of Allen Jones.
pharmavet
A new low. Paying off the formulary.
Jerry Wells
Fiorello is mentioned in an affidavit of Allen Jones here:
http://psychrights.org/Drugs/AllenJonesTMAPJanuary20.pdf
I’ll bet there’s some state pharmacists shaking in their boots this morning. Come clean folks - save yourself some prison time!
Blue Dog Dem
I’m not a pharma basher, but it is really amazing how big pharma keeps getting caught up in these obvious payoffs — particularily for psychiatric drugs. While the article doesn’t mention it, you wonder if pharma is going to walk away unscathed again. I can only assume their motto is “live to fight another day.”
Lisa Van S
Congratulations to Allen Jones,..For a job well done!!
LILLI
There has been many issues with pharmaceutical compmpanies and conflict of issues, espically with doctors. What needs more attention and dicipline is primary care doctors not reporting adverse side effects. Thw medical profession has been protecting the pharmceuticals companiens. Congress and the present administration has enacted medical malpractice laws that do not reveal the horrow stories of early death from medications. Obama, president elect choice of Tom Daschle as Health and Human Service and Jeanne Lmabrew as Health care Reform will actually make things worsee. Dashle is a lobbyist for healthcare and Lambrew is connected to Brookings Institution. The taxpaper is not representated.
pharmplus
This guy Allen Jones is a kook. He was fired by the State of Pennsylvania. His conspiracy theory links the president with the pharmaceutical companies. If he is bashing a pharmacist, I would give the guy the benefit of the doubt, probably never accepted “perks” but did some work for the pharmaceutical companies which is common with pharmacists.
GM
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” -
— Mahatma Gandhi
Allen Jones
Thanks GM
That quote was taped onto my computer monitor at the OIG when I was “escorted” from the building in 2004.
AJ
sbs
Long time follower of your site yet normally silent. I thought this post was one of the best articles I’ve read in awhile on any of the blogs I follow. As someone else commented – your more recent work has been more engaging, keep up the great work!