Published 2013.02.13 in CommPRO.biz

Deadly Doping

Fiction could never match the bizarre tale of greed and deceit that is bubbling to the surface in U.S. District Court in Boston. To understand the depth and breadth of this ethical cesspool, read investigative journalist, Kathleen Sharp’s book Blood Feud (in paperback Blood Medicine). It reads like a thriller. Tragically, however, it is playing out in real life.

Mark Duxbury was a Super-Star pharma rep for Ortho (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) until he began to realize that, used in the off-label doses he was being pushed to recommend, Procrit (AKA “EPO”) had dangerous side effects up to and including death. At that point he and another Ortho rep tried to call attention to the danger EPO presents. Their whistle-blowing efforts got them fired, but they soldiered on without much luck until Kathleen Sharp took time to listen to them lay out the complex web the Big Pharma giant has created.

Duxbury began bugging Sharp in 2004; she did her best to ignore him until EPO (Epoetin alfa, also known as Procrit, Eepgen, and Aranesp) was red flagged by the FDA in 2007. After Sharp’s meeting with Duxbury she realized that this story was way more than she could cover in one of her normal contributions to the New York Times, Fortune, and other major publications. Sharp realized it would take a book. Her real life thriller was ultimately selected as an Oprah Top 10 Pick.

As it turned out, EPO in large doses seemed to work miracles with some patients it even gave athletes like bicycle racers (Lance Armstrong among others) extra stamina to power them to victory. But it also accelerated some forms of cancer, triggered heart attacks, strokes, and aneurysms; it proved fatal to many patients. The book paints a sorry picture of doctors and hospitals accepting huge amounts of free Procrit and billing Medicare for its use. The whistle-blowers estimate that these medical entities rang up more than three billion dollars in Medicare fraud.

So far the private lawsuit in Federal Court has seen the Justice Department on the sidelines. Given the level of alleged fraud that seems strange. It is especially odd in light of the connection between Attorney General Eric Holder and the law firm representing Johnson & Johnson. Holder was a partner in that firm until he joined the Obama administration. Wouldn’t you assume that he would want to remove any hint that he was holding back in pursuing his former client? It’s past time for our Justice Department to act and bring those responsible for this series of tragedies to justice.

Kathleen Sharp’s book is on its way to becoming a motion picture. Sadly, Mark Duxbury will not see the story he triggered come to its conclusion in court or on the screen; he died at age 49.