Ranbaxy's top bosses wanted to destroy proof: Dinesh Thakur

NEW DELHI: Dinesh Thakur, the whistleblower in Ranbaxy Laboratories' US drug safety case, has alleged that the company's "senior leadership" in 2005 ordered destruction of evidence.

Thakur, a former director of research information & project management at Ranbaxy, has claimed in the US courts that senior company executives ordered destruction of evidence when they were alerted to data fudging, misbranding and adulteration in drugs. Thakur's submission to the courts was reviewed by ET.

"Defendants (Ranbaxy) knowingly concealed from authorities the FDCA and other law violations and requested that Dr. Kumar (Thakur's senior) destroy the evidence of the fraud. Dr. Kumar responded by resigning, although his resignation was not formally announced until March 2005," Thakur has alleged in his submission made to the district court of Maryland in June 2012.

Thakur has not named any senior company executive. Brian Tempest was the managing director of the company in 2004-05 and Malvinder Singh was its president. Tempest's predecessor, DS Brar, had stepped down in mid-2004.

The Gurgaon-based drug maker on Monday agreed to pay a $500-million penalty to the US government to settle a criminal and civil lawsuit that leveled charges of falsifying data from its drug facilities. Thakur was awarded $48.6 million from the penalty for reporting the violations.

While Ranbaxy refused to comment on the allegation, US-based Thakur could not be contacted for comment on the development.
Thakur, who served Ranbaxy between 2002 and 2005, was reporting to Rajinder Kumar, the then head of R&D at Ranbaxy, when he found that the firm was making false claims on drugs data to US regulators.

Thakur has informed the courts that Kumar was apprised of the situation and he, in turn, reported the matter to the senior management. The former Ranbaxy executive mentions two specific board meetings where Kumar informed the then company board about the malpractice.

Kumar, according to the court submissions, first informed the board about data falsification in 2004 during a closed-door meeting of the board of directors in Thailand held between September 21 and 24.

In December 2004, Kumar addressed a smaller group of board members and briefed it on Thakur's findings, which concerned charges of fraudulent claims and documentation related to some of the affected drugs and new drug applications by the company.

However, a former Ranbaxy board member told ET, "Thakur himself didn't attend any board meeting to the best of my knowledge."

Thakur had relocated to India from the US in June 2003 to work at Ranbaxy's Gurgaon R&D centre. Thakur, whose responsibilities included management of Ranbaxy's product and portfolio, set up the firm's program management office, which looked into generation of internal data on formulation and manufacturing of generic drugs.

The former Ranbaxy executive prepared detailed status evaluations and revenue projections for each drug in Ranbaxy's portfolio based on four global regions of business operations, which included the US market. He was also was in-charge of R&D informatics. Thakur's job profile gave him access to sensitive internal data and the company's senior management.