Illicit Drug Manufacturing And Deception

Dendreon shareholders allege inflated growth, insider trading in class action

Dr. Katsuto Shinohara, right, and Dr. Surat Dhonsombat look at a video monitor as they perform a bracytherapy operation on a man with prostate cancer at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center on Aug. 17, 2005, in San Francisco. Today, Dendreon's Provenge is billed as the first FDA-approved cancer vaccine, helping to treat prostate cancer by infusing a patient's own blood with cancer-fighting medicine.

Shareholders have filed a class-action lawsuit against Seattle-based biotech firm Dendreon alleging the company misled the public into believing sales of its prostate-cancer drug were higher than they actually were.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. district court in Seattle, follows an earnings report last week in which Dendreon lowered its sales forecast based on slow sales of its drug, Provenge.

After the Wednesday report, Dendron shares plummeted 60 percent to a new low of $13.39 per share, far outpacing the overall market's decline. At the end of trading Monday, Dendreon stock was trading at $10.37 per share, down from around $35 a week ago.

In the class action, shareholders allege Dendreon gave "materially false and misleading statements and failures to disclose" true Provenge sales between Jan. 7 and Aug. 3, leading to inflated stock prices that tumbled when true sales were finally disclosed.

From the lawsuit, which also names as defendants Dendreon's Mitchell Gold, president and chief executive; Gregory Schiffman, chief financial officer; and Hans Bishop, chief operating officer:

During the class period, as detailed herein, defendants engaged in a scheme to deceive the market, and a course of conduct that artificially inflated the price of Dendreon's securities and operated as a fraud or deceit on class period purchasers of Dendreon's securities by misrepresenting the company's financial results. Over a period of several months, defendants improperly inflated the company's financial results. Ultimately, however, when defendants' prior misrepresentations and fraudulent conduct came to be revealed and was apparent to investors, Dendreon's securities declined precipitously – evidence that the prior artificial inflation in the price of Dendreon's securities was eradicated. As a result of their purchases of Dendreon securities during the class period, plaintiff and other members of the Class suffered economic losses, i.e. damages under the federal securities laws.

Socially Programming America for Increased Drug Abuse - Salem ...

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Gary Ruskin, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Commercial Alert, was quoted in 2005 as saying "Direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs should be prohibited. This advertising does not promote public health. It increases the cost of drugs and the number of unnecessary prescriptions, which is expensive to taxpayers, and can be harmful or deadly to patients. Prescription drug advertising pressures health professionals to prescribe particular medications, and often the ones that may be less effective and more expensive and dangerous. This intrudes in the relationship between medical professionals and patients, and disrupts the therapeutic process. It takes up valuable time to explain to patients why they may have been misled by the drug advertisements they have seen."

Recently Purdue Pharma announced a Facebook page to advocate for the undertreatment of pain in America.

Under the "Advocacy Voices" tab, the following is just one "expert" in the undertreatment of pain in America:

"The negative impact of unrelieved pain on the lives of individuals and their families, on the health care system, and on society at large is no longer a matter of debate. The unmet needs of millions of patients combine into a major public health concern. Although there have been substantive improvements during the past several decades, the problem remains profound and change will require enormous efforts at many levels. Pressure from patients and the larger public is a key element in creating momentum for change." — Russell K. Portenoy, MD Chairman, Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Beth Israel Medical Center.