The Nation - News from April 28, 1989

A Food and Drug Administration chemist was charged with accepting cash payments from companies whose products need FDA approval, and a pharmaceutical executive was charged with giving an illegal gratuity to an FDA employee, federal prosecutors said. “These charges represent the first of what I expect to be a series of prosecutions against government employees, consultants and pharmaceutical concerns and their executives,” U.S. Atty. Breckinridge Willcox said. The charges stemmed from an ongoing investigation of the FDA’s Division of Generic Drugs in Rockville, Md., which is responsible for the review and approval of applications submitted by manufacturers seeking to market generic drugs.