Dive Brief:
- A former official at GlaxoSmithKline has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in New Jersey against the pharma giant and several of its executives, including CEO Andrew Witty, Stat News reports.
- Alexandre Selmani was a biostatistics manager at Glaxo and a 10-year vet of the firm until his firing last October.
- Selmani alleges he was fired for raising concerns about clinical trial data surrounding the popular smoking cessation patch Nicoderm (marketed as NiQuitin in the UK) .
Dive Insight:
To be clear, Selmani isn't claiming that the (in his words) "deceptive marketing" program stemming from Nicoderm clinical trials has caused any consumer harm. But he says Glaxo denied him raises and opportunities to advance in the company for pushing back on GSK claims that Nicoderm was a major breakthrough in smoking cessation.
Selmani's attorney expanded on his allegations to Stat News. "[GSK] wanted to use flawed data to sell the product to the public," said Rosemarie Arnold in an interview with the outlet. "And when he brought that to the attention of his supervisor, he was basically told to shut up. He worked there many years, got great reviews, and did a great job. But they tried to push him out when he complained they used improper data. And consumers paid for something they didn’t get."
Selmani's suit also says that he directly emailed Glaxo chief Andrew Witty about the alleged statistical mistakes in the Nicoderm clinical trial data.