Massachusetts Doctor Gets Over $10 million for Being Elan Whistleblower

Newton Massachusetts Psychiatrist Dr. Lee R. Chartock is about to receive over $10 million for his role in being the whistleblower in the case against Irish pharma giant Elan Corporation and its subsidiary Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc.. Elan Corporation PLC is a publicly traded neuroscience based biotech company. (ELN). The company has agreed to pay more than $203 million to resolve the claims arising from the illegal promotion of the epilepsy drug Zonegran. Zonegran was approved by the FDA as an anti-epileptic drug for the treatment of partial epileptic seizures in adults over 16. Elan promoted the sale of Zonegran for a wide variety of uses including mood stabilization, obesity/weight loss and seizures in kids under 16. In Dr. Chartok’s elan-first-amended-complaint, filed in the U.S. Distrct Court in Boston, he says that a company sales person a dvocated Zonegran for weight loss and mood stabilization. He also stated that physicians at a seminar for other doctors, spoke about the off label use of the drug for binge eating disorders, bulimia and weight loss. Dr. Chartock also said that the company representatives said that Zonegran was going to be FDA approved for mood stabilization and this was stated as a fact. The complaint also alleged violations of various state whistleblower laws and it is unclear as to whether those claims are still pending and Dr. Chartock might receive a percentage of reccovery on those cases as well. Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers in significant claims of various types.