some real smart arssholes!
Biogen won't vouch for former exec: Co. won't say it thinks Bucknum's innocent
By Brett Arends
Friday, March 11, 2005
Biogen has stopped insisting that former general counsel Thomas Bucknum, who resigned suddenly on Wednesday night, is innocent of insider dealing.
The embattled Cambridge biotech firm is under federal investigation after it emerged that four executives made $10.7 million on stock sales in the days leading up to disastrous information about its big new drug Tysabri.
The sum includes $1.9 million made by Bucknum on Feb. 18, the day the company informed the Food and Drug Administration of Tysabri's problem.
Yesterday, spokesman Jose Juves insisted that the stock sales by the other three executives, including Chairman William Rastetter, were innocent. ``The sales were planned previous to any knowledge of potential safety issues with Tysabri and PML,'' Juves said.
PML is an extremely rare and fatal disease contracted by two Tysabri patients. One has died.
Was Biogen also vouching for Bucknum's innocence?
``We are not commenting on Mr. Bucknum or his resignation,'' Juves said pointedly.
Biogen stock crashed 43 percent on Feb. 18 when the company revealed the potential problems with Tysabri and pulled the drug from the market.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating the company and all stock sales.
Bucknum's new lawyer, Juan Marcelino, yesterday said his client was innocent. ``Mr. Bucknum believes he has done nothing wrong,'' Marcelino said. ``He offered his resignation in order that he would not become a distraction to the business.''
There was further bad news for Biogen yesterday, with allegations that it first heard of problems with Tysabri earlier than thought.
A report in The New York Times said the company found out a Tsyabri user had died as early as Feb. 7. Crucially, that was before the controversial stock sales.
Dr. Daniel Pelletier of the University of California San Francisco said he reported his patient's death on that date, though he added that at the time the cause of death was unknown.
Biogen yesterday refused to confirm the company learned of the patient's death on Feb. 7.
But Juves said that ``in the course of clinical trials there are many serious adverse events that are routinely reported and reviewed. A single unexplained or undiagnosed adverse event is inconclusive. You don't know what the cause is.'' |
