Supreme Court Rejects Former Biotech CEO Free Speech Argument

After years of battling authorities, W. Scott Harkonen has lost his battle to overturn a 2009 conviction for wire fraud in connection with disseminating false and misleading statements in a press release about clinical trial results for a drug that was sold by a biotech where he had been the ceo. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal. Although there was considerable uncertainty about whether the justices would act on his petition, the case was, nonetheless, being closely watched if only because Harkonen and his legal team made a point of raising First Amendment and commercial speech rights, which is a hot-button topic in the pharmaceutical industry.   At issue, as we wrote previously, was a press release that Harkonen, who headed InterMune, distributed in 2002 that contained clinical trial results for a drug called Actimmune. The primary outcome was not achieved, but the release stated that sub-group analysis showed the drug helped patients with a fatal lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, live longer (back story). The feds charged the press release contained false and misleading statements that prompted doctors to write more prescriptions even though Actimmune was not approved for that disease. But his attorneys argued that the US Department of Justice overreached in framing the contents of the press release and how Harkonen chose to communicate them. In their brief to the Supreme Court, they maintained that scientists can...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs