Arthur Hailey - Strong Medicine

It was an ex parte proceeding of which Felding-Roth had no advance knowledge; therefore the company was unrepresented when the search warrant was applied for and issued. The search-and-seizure move was a shock to Celia and others, as was the presence of the marshals who remained for several days, finally taking away a dozen cartons of papers in a truck. Among them were contents of filing cabinets in the research department, including one in Vincent Lord's office. Lord tried to protest the intrusion into his office, but was shown the search warrant and ordered to stand aside. Since the day when, in Lord's office, Celia had discovered the illegally withheld adverse reports, the research director had avoided, as much as possible, contact with other senior people in the company, especially Celia. It was clear to all concerned that Lord's days at Felding-Roth were numbered. Equally clear was that until the Hexin W adverse reports matter was resolved, the company, which included Lord, had no choice but to present a united front. The seizure of papers made this even clearer, therefore an uneasy truce prevailed. While Lord was keeping his distance, Celia was formulating a plan to restructure the research organization, with a divisional president in overall charge and, reporting to him, vice presidents who would head specialist sections, including the new genetic engineering facility. She had some ideas about who the head of genetics might be. After the mid-November activity, nothing more was heard on that subject through the remainder of the year. Shortly before Christmas, Childers Quentin reported, "Officially there's still an investigation in progress, but they've a lot of other things going on at Justice, and Hexin W isn't on their front burner.”

Bill Ingram, who again listened to the report with Celia, said, "I suppose the longer that action is delayed, the less chance there is of anything serious happening.”

"It's been known to work out that way," Quentin said.”Just the same, don't count on it.”

The first day of the new year brought an item of happy news. The rumored knighthood for Martin Peat-Smith became reality with the appearance of Martin's name on the Queen's Honors List. The Times of London reported that the award was for "outstanding service to humanity and science.”

The official investiture of Sir Martin Peat-Smith by Her Majesty would be at Buckingham Palace in the first week of February. Celia, learning of this during a congratulatory telephone call to Martin, said, "Andrew and I will come over the week before, and after you've been to the Palace we'll have a party for you and Yvonne.”

Thus, near the end of January, Celia and Andrew were in London, accompanied by Lilian Hawthorne whom Celia had persuaded to join them. In the seven and a half years since Sam's death, Lilian had grown accustomed to living alone and seldom traveled. But Celia pointed out that the occasion was, in a way, a memorial to Sam since the Harlow institute had been his idea, and Martin, Sam's choice to head it. Celia, Andrew and Lilian were staying at the latest "in" place for affluent travellers- Forty-seven Park Street in Mayfair, where hotel convenience was combined with private luxury apartments. Lilian, who would be sixty at her next birthday, was still a strikingly handsome woman, and during a visit by the trio to the Harlow institute Rao Sastri was obviously attracted to her, despite the twenty-year difference in their ages. Sastri conducted a special tour of the labs for Lilian and afterward the two of them took off for lunch. Celia was amused to learn that they had arranged an evening in London--dinner and a theater-for the following week. On Monday, two days before the investiture, Celia received a transatlantic call from Bill Ingram.”I'm sorry to burden you with bad news," the executive vice president began, "but Childers Quentin just called. It seems that in Washington all hell just broke loose.”

The news, he explained, concerned the FDA, Dr. Gideon Mace, the Department of Justice, Senator Dennis Donahue and Hexin W. "The way Quentin tells it," Ingram said, "is that Mace got tired of what he saw as inaction at the Justice Department. So on his own, unofficially, he took all the Hexin W papers over to Capitol Hill to one of Donahue's aides. The aide showed them to Donahue, who grabbed the whole schmear as if it were a Christmas present. According to Quentin's informant, the senator's words were, 'I've been waiting for something like this.' "Yes," Celia said, "I can imagine.”

"The next thing," Ingram continued, "is that Donahue called the Attorney General and demanded action. Since then--again as Quentin tells it-Donahue's been calling the A.G. every hour on the hour.”

Celia sighed.”That's a lot of bad news at once. Is there anything else?" "Unfortunately, quite a bit more. First, it's now definite that a grand jury will be empanelled to look into the Hexin W delayed reports, plus something else that's come out. And the Attorney General, who's taking a personal interest because of Donahue, is sure he can get indictments.”

"Against whom?" "Vince Lord, of course. But also, I'm sorry to tell you, Celia, against you. They're going to argue that you were responsible--and that's on Donahue's urging. According to Quentin, Donahue wants your scalp.”

Celia knew why. She remembered the Washington lawyer's warning after the Senate hearings.”You made him look a fool... 1f any time in the future, he can do harm to Felding-Roth or to you... he'll do it and enjoy it.”

Then she recalled some words of Ingram's spoken moments earlier and asked, "Bill, you said there was 'something else that's come out.' What?" This time Ingram sighed. Then he said, "This gets complicated, though I'll try to put it simply. "When the clinical testing data on Hexin W was submitted to Washington with our NDA, it contained the usual gamut of medical studies, including one by a Dr. Yaminer of Phoenix. It now turns out that Yammer's study was a fake. He listed patients he didn't have. Much of his data was fraudulent.”

"I'm sorry to hear that," Celia said, "though it happens occasionally. Other companies have had the same problem. But when you find out about the faking-if you do-you tell the FDA and they go after the doctor.”

"Right," Ingram agreed.”What you're not supposed to do, though, is include the data in an NDA after discovering it to be false.”

"Of course not.”

"Vince did. He initialed Yammer's report and let it go.”

Celia asked, "But how does anyone know that Vince was aware

"I'm coming to that.”

She said wearily, "Go on.”

"When those federal marshals were with us, doing their search and seizure, they took away files from Vince's department. Among them was one for Dr. Yaminer. In that file were some rough notes in Vince's handwriting, showing he'd discovered Yaminer's report to be false before he let it go to FDA. The Justice Department now has the original report and Vince's notes.”

Celia was silent. What was there to say? She wondered: was there any end to infamy? "And I guess, that's all," Ingram said.”Except "Except what?" "Well... it's about Dr. Mace, and the way he seems antagonistic to us. I remember you saying once that you had no idea why.”

-I still haven't.”

"I think Vince knows why," Ingram said.”I have an instinct. I've watched Vince too. He seems scared stiff any time Mace's name comes up.”

Celia weighed what she had just heard. Then suddenly, in her mind, Ingram's words linked up with a conversation she had had with Lord at the time of the Senate hearings. She had accused him then of lying on the witness stand and... Making a fast decision, she said, "I want to see him. Over here.”

"Vince?" "Yes. Tell him it's an order. He's to get on the first available plane and report to me as soon as he arrives.”