WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- An ex-Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. executive was indicted Wednesday for allegedly lying to the U.S. government about a deal involving Plavix, prosecutors said.
The one-count indictment issued by a grand jury in Washington charges Andrew Bodnar, a former senior vice president at Bristol-Myers, with violating the Federal False Statements Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 upon conviction.
Bodnar is accused of lying to Federal Trade Commission officials about the nature of Bristol-Myers' agreement with another drug company, Apotex, in 2006 not to pursue a generic blood-thinning drug similar to Plavix. Bristol-Myers agreed to the deal to settle litigation between the two pharmaceutical firms.
At the time, Bristol-Myers was subject to a separate consent decree, for an unrelated matter, requiring it to submit any proposed patent settlements for review and advisory approval by the FTC. The agency had warned the company that if it agreed with Apotex not to market its own generic version of Plavix then the FTC would not approve a settlement of the Plavix litigation.
Bristol-Myers, based in New York, pleaded guilty last year and was fined $1 million for misleading the government about the Plavix deal.
