Pharmacia Securities Fraud Judge Rejects Hague Convention "International Letters Rogatory"

Though the outcome was in no way surprising, the attempted use of powers granted under the Hague Convention is highly unusual -- in a domestic federal securities class action. This 2001-era class action alleges numerous misdeeds (related to the marketing of Celebrex^® and Bextra^®) by Fred Hassan and Carrie Cox (and others), back when they were in charge of what became Pharmacia. Pharmacia was sold in 2003 by a management team led by Hassan, to Pfizer.

So -- for the sake of a complete record -- I'll mention that last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovani issued a letter order, denying the 2001-era Pharmacia plaintiffs' request -- thus:

. . . .The Court has received and reviewed the parties’ letter briefs regarding Plaintiffs’ Application for Issuance of a Letter of Request under the Hague Convention regarding Professor Paul Dieppe (“Dieppe”).

This case is a securities fraud class action against Pharmacia Corporation et al., the class having been certified by the Court as consisting of holders of record of Pharmacia Common Stock purchased on or between April 17, 2000 and August 5, 2001. Dieppe resides in England and is a citizen of the United Kingdom and a non-party in this dispute. Dieppe is a coauthor of an editorial opinion appearing in the British Medical Journal (“BMJ”)on June 1, 2002, criticizing an article appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September 2000, evaluating certain clinical trial results involving Defendants’ drug product. Plaintiffs are applying for this Letter Rogatory based on this editorial opinion.

The Court finding that the BMJ article written by Dieppe appeared after the Court ruled that the class period ended; and the Court further finding that the BMJ article only expressed the opinion of Dieppe and his coauthors on already published information and, as such, does not indicate that Dieppe has personal knowledge of any facts bearing on the issues or claims in the instant action. . . .

Plaintiff’s Application for the Issuance of a Letter of Request under the Hague Convention Regarding Paul Dieppe is denied. . . .

In the larger narrative, though, the plaintiffs are inexorably marching toward a trial on the merits -- and likely liability -- for the people who (allegedly) delayed the disclosure of important, but non-flattering, Celebrex/Bextra clinical trial study results, and/or encouraged off-label sales-team/marketing claims, to boot. And that cohort would (allegedly) include Mr. Hassan and Ms. Cox.

Background -- these events ultimately cost Pfizer $2.3 billion -- the largest criminal fine in US pharma history -- and almost all took place after Hassan took over at what was then Pharmacia & Upjohn. [Just FYI -- he's now angling back and forth, in much the same way -- at Bausch & Lomb, a privately-held, Warburg Pincus-backed eye-care company.]

From the time Fred Hassan arrived at Pharmacia (late of AHP), on March 31, 2000, many felt it was clear that he was continually maneuvering to sell the company off, either in total, or in bits and pieces -- despite very-public protestations to the contrary. [He brought Carrie Smith Cox over, effective March 31, 2000, as well.] And the rest, as they say, is history.