Former Bristol-Myers Squibb Senior Vice President Indicted for Lying to the Federal Government About Popular Blood-Thi...( WASHINGTON April 23 -- The Depar...),Health

WASHINGTON, April 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice announced today that the former senior vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Andrew Bodnar, was indicted for his role in lying to the federal government about a patent deal involving the popular blood-thinning drug, Plavix, used by heart attack, stroke and other patients. The Department said that the alleged illegal actions of Bodnar related to the possible introduction of a generic drug that would compete with Plavix.

On June 11, 2007, BMS agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine for misleading the government about the Plavix patent deal. BMS paid the maximum fine permitted by statute for committing two violations under the federal False Statements Act.

According to the one-count indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in 2006, BMS and another company, Apotex Inc., were engaged in litigation over the validity of the patent for Plavix and were negotiating a settlement of that litigation. At the time, BMS was subject to a separate consent decree, for unrelated conduct, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that required BMS to submit any proposed patent settlements for review and advisory approval by the FTC. The FTC warned BMS that if BMS agreed with Apotex not to launch BMS's own generic version of Plavix -- meaning that BMS would not compete against Apotex for generic sales -- then the FTC would not approve a settlement of the Plavix litigation.

In the indictment, the Department alleges that, at a meeting in 2006, Bodnar, on behalf of BMS, made representations to Apotex to reassure it that BMS would not launch a generic version of Plavix if Apotex agreed to a settlement which would prevent Apotex from launching its Plavix generic until 2011. The Department charges that Bodnar knowingly and willfully made a false statement to the FTC about the existence of his representations to Apotex.