5-29-19 Police heard him boast about his power to help Big Pharma make millions pushing painkillers and about all the money they say he was paid in exchange. Now
This is the first known case outside the U.S. where employees of the pharmaceutical empire owned by the Sackler family have been criminally implicated, more than a decade after Purdue executives were convicted over misleading the American public about the addictiveness of OxyContin.
Hundreds of pages of investigative files obtained by the Associated Press detail how Fanelli helped executives from Mundipharma’s Italian branch and other companies promote painkillers by writing papers, organizing conferences and working to counter government warnings that opioid consumption was spiking and that physicians should be cautious. https://apnews.com/d384c975e039474e8b93e11b9ace18e0
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5-29-19 Two Mundipharma managers accepted plea bargains in January in connection to allegations that they paid the doctor to help sell more drugs. A lawyer representing them said the pleas are not an admission of guilt. The company’s Italian branch was fined. A spokesman for Mundipharma Europe said the corporation did not admit wrongdoing and denied it endorsed any message minimizing addiction risks….
Researchers in Brazil report that prescription opioid sales have skyrocketed 465 percent in six years. Overdose deaths are going up in Sweden, Norway, Ireland and England, fueled by prescription painkillers and the illicit drug trade…. Fanelli served as a chief of the anesthesiology and pain therapy department at Maggiore Hospital in Parma, and called himself the father of a 2010 law that made opioids easier to prescribe, which he championed as necessary to ease suffering.
But in 2009, as he was helping to draft the law, prosecutors allege he began meeting with “The Pain League,” including managers from Mundipharma, several Italian pharmaceutical companies and the Italian arm of German-based Grunenthal.
“The drug companies saw him as the vehicle to commercially promote their own drugs,” said Maj. Gianfranco Di Sario, who oversaw the police investigation. Prosecutors allege that Fanelli drew in a web of conspirators, from organizers of medical conferences to fellow physicians. Fanelli through his lawyer declined comment.
Italy, unlike the U.S., has strict laws limiting drug companies’ influence on medical training and practice. A specialized unit of the Carabinieri is tasked with safeguarding citizens’ health. The Italian language even has a specific word for the crime committed by doctors who work to drive up drug sales: “comparaggio.” So police got to work, listening in to Fanelli’s conversations and reading his text messages. https://nypost.com/2019/05/29/sackler-firm-ensnared-in-opioid-probe-of-italys-pain-league/
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5-30-19 Prosecutors claim Mundipharma and the Italian arm of German pharma company Grünenthal paid sums of €464,000 and €640,855 respectively to Fanelli’s businesses over a period of several years, although the two companies head offices insist they were unaware of the activity. Other companies implicated in what has been dubbed ‘The Pain League’ include Italian firms Molteni and Angelini.
Grünenthal execs – including chief commercial officer for Europe, Australia and North America Alberto Grua, and Thilo Stadler, general manager for southern Europe – continue to plead their innocence but remain under suspicion. They are no longer employed by the drugmaker.
There has been anger about the penalties already imposed on the two drugmakers in connection with the case. Mundipharma’s Italian subsidiary was fined (only) €40,000 and Grünenthal Italia had a €50,000 penalty. https://pharmaphorum.com/news/mundipharma-grunenthal-italy-opioid/
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12-1-19 Mohsen Mahgoub, Chairman of Ibnsina Pharma: “Expanding business with Mundipharma Egypt is a testament to the success of our business model, which provides our partners with distribution, importation, storage and value-added marketing services and has allowed us to become the distributor of choice for both foreign and domestic suppliers.“ https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/business/story/Ibnsina_Pharma_signs_partnership_with_Mundipharma_in_Egypt-SNG_160696852/
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8-19-19 Mundipharma calls itself a network of independent associated companies, with its structure set up around what Mundipharma can offer its partners – a presence in every country outside the USA, but locally-powered. https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/mundipharma-a-company-that-is-transformed-unique-and-partnership-driven-says-marco-cerato
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2-10-18 Purdue’s statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and would no longer send sales representatives to doctors’ offices (in US) to discuss opioid drugs. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/10/oxycontin-maker-purdue-marketing-opioids-painkillers
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see pp. 233-4 of https://books.google.com/books?id=aHSPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=mundipharma+outlaw&source=bl&ots=ATbX9ByDSu&sig=ACfU3U2KkjFxOkgyMZinJDFgvcwZeabrTA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS0ryS_szmAhVJsZ4KHTvdADIQ6AEwEXoECCgQAQ#v=onepage&q=mundipharma%20outlaw&f=false
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