FT Alphaville " How to sound contrite (as a potential kid poisoner) There's a lesson here for Bob and others in banking bother. It comes from Andrew Witty, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, after paying $3bn to settle the largest ever case of heathcare fraud in the US.... Today brings to resolution difficult, long-standing matters for GSK. Whilst these originate in a different era for the company, they cannot and will not be ignored. On behalf of GSK, I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made. We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to live up to and exceed the expectations of those we work with and serve. Since I became CEO, we have had a clear priority to ingrain a culture of putting patients first, acting transparently, respecting people inside and outside the organisation and displaying integrity in everything we do. In the US, we have taken action at all levels in the company. We have fundamentally changed our procedures for compliance, marketing and selling. When necessary, we have removed employees who have engaged in misconduct. In the last two years, we have reformed the basis on which we pay our sales representatives and we have enhanced our ability to "claw back" remuneration of our senior management... What brought that on? Well. Read this: Despite the anti-depressant Paxil failing to show clear efficacy in trials involving children and teenagers - and in the complete absence of regulatory approval - GSK launched a concerted campaign to get children and teenagers popping said pills. And it did so by corrupting US doctors. A taste from the FDA complaint: GSK held eight "Paxil Forum" events at resorts in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and California in 2000 and 2001. GSK invited psychiatrists who prescribed large amounts of SSRIs to attend the events. Each of GSK's approximately 150 neuroscience sales representatives could attend up to two of the events per year, and each representative could invite up to two different psychiatrists to each event. The 3-day Paxil Forum events included presentations about Paxil and other topics. The events also included dinners and recreational activities such as deep sea fishing, kayaking, snorkeling, sailing, horseback riding, ballon rides and golf. GSK paid for the psychiatrists" air far, lodging, meals, recreational activities and provided to each of them an honorarium of $750... Other drugs (and abuses) were involved, including Wellbutrin and Avandia, but you get the picture. Related links: Letter from Bob Diamond to the Treasury Select Committee - Barclays GSK agrees $3bn drug settlement - FT story from November This entry was posted by Paul Murphy on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 18:51 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with andrew witty, barclays, bob diamond, GlaxoSmithKline, Paxil.