Ex-Serono director accused by US feds of AIDS drug kickbacks

AFP, December, 2004

BOSTON, United States (AFP) — A former director of a Swiss pharmaceutical group was charged for rewarding US doctors with trips to France in exchange for prescribing a Serono AIDS medicine, prosecutors said.

Adam Stupak, Serono's former director of sales in New York, offered doctors all-expenses-paid trips to an AIDS conference on France's Cote d'Azure, the US Justice Department said in a statement.

Three doctors were rewarded for prescribing Serono's Serostim, in order to boost the drug's flagging sales. The company's goal was to sell six million ...