Minnesota Attorney General Asks Court To Unseal GlaxoSmithKline Documents Related to Reimportation of Prescription Drugs

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 02 Jun 2005 - 13:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions

The office of Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch (D) on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to unseal 45 internal corporate records of pharmaceutical manufacturer... GlaxoSmithKline, allegedly related to drug industry efforts to stop reimportation of less-costly drugs from Canada, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Hatch received the internal records through a confidentiality agreement with GSK last year (Phelps, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/1). Hatch in 2003 filed a lawsuit that sought to require GSK to produce records related to a company policy implemented in January 2003 under which GSK refused to sell products to Canadian pharmacies and wholesalers that market the products online to the United States and other nations. In the lawsuit, Hatch argued that AstraZeneca, Wyeth and Pfizer implemented similar policies within a three-month period, which appeared to be "too much of a coincidence." In May 2004, Hennepin County District Judge Peter Albrecht ruled that GSK must produce Canadian and British records that Hatch said indicate collusion among pharmaceutical companies to limit prescription drug supplies to Canadian mail-order pharmacies that market the products to U.S. customers. GSK had offered to allow state attorneys limited "viewing" and "note-taking" of the records, but Albrecht said that such an offer was "a grossly inadequate substitution for production." However, Albrecht ruled that the 45 records must remain confidential (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/14/04).

Request for Release
Deputy Attorney General Michael Vanselow on Tuesday said the records are "incriminating documents of public importance" that are directly related to the state's case that the pharmaceutical industry threatened to boycott the Canadian drug industry if it continued to ship drugs to the United States. He said, "What does GSK have to hide? We know what it has to hide, and it's time for the public to know, too." GSK attorney Sara Schotland said the company has complied with the civil investigation, adding, "The relief the state sought was discovery and the state has that. The state has been required to adhere to a protective order." She said the documents do not reflect "any illegal commercial conduct" but are related to approaching the government about reimportation issues. The state Supreme Court took the request under advisement for a future ruling (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/1).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.