WHYY News and Information
By Kerry Grens
February 1, 2010

Last year, several federal juries in Philadelphia returned the largest ever settlements against drug companies. These lawsuits, which resulted in billions in fines, were spurred by a handful of whistleblowers. WHYY’s Kerry Grens looks at the growing phenomenon of the whistleblower suit.

Allen Jones comes across as …. intense. He lives in a cabin he built in the woods of Snyder County Pennsylvania. He speaks in a very direct and exacting manner. He smokes, and runs his hand through his hair when he gets lost in his thoughts.

Eight years ago, Jones worked as an investigator in Pennsylvania’s Office of the Inspector General.

Jones: An issue landed on my desk involving the state pharmacist Stephen Fiorello.

Jones was asked to look into payments Fiorello had received from pharmaceutical companies. To Jones, it seemed obvious. The payments involved a conflict of interest verging on crime.

Jones: As all of this began to emerge, I began to press my supervisor to broaden the investigation from a personnel issue into a fraud issue and to look more closely at what the drug companies were doing.

Read entire article:  http://whyy.org/cms/news/health-science/2010/02/01/why-people-blow-the-whistle-and-what-they-get-out-of-it/29471