CBS Evening News covers Ranbaxy fraud

From CBS Evening News on Nov. 5, 2013:


In 2004, Ranbaxy executive Dinesh Thakur was asked by his boss to investigate allegations of fraud at the company. Thakur quickly uncovered disturbing problems with the data required by the FDA to prove the effectiveness of Ranbaxy drugs.

"The data's important because the FDA or other agencies globally look at that information to give you marketing authorization to sell the drug," Thakur says. "We started getting the files, and, lo and behold, we find that none of that exists in the first place. ... It means that we've gotten approvals from the FDA to sell drugs that were based on no data, or data that was fraudulent."

(...)

FDA officials declined to be interviewed on camera but told CBS News at the time that Ranbaxy was approved to make generic Lipitor, the company met FDA's standards.

The federal investigation based on Dinesh Thakur's allegations led Ranbaxy to plead guilty to seven felonies. Ranbaxy was bought by a new owner in 2008 -- the Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo.