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Statement by Dinesh Thakur Regarding US Government’s Case Against Ranbaxy

Thanks to Suhail Kazi for directing me towards this statement

Today, the United States government brought to a conclusion an eight-year criminal and civil investigation of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, India’s largest generic drug company, and Ranbaxy, Inc., Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ranbaxy Laboratories, Inc., Ranbaxy USA, Inc., and Ohm Laboratories, Inc. (“Ranbaxy”). Ranbaxy has agreed to pay $500 million to resolve allegations of falsifying drug data and systemic manufacturing violations. Ranbaxy USA Inc. has pleaded guilty to multiple criminal violations. Dinesh Thakur served as the whistleblower in this case and is the former Ranbaxy Director and Global Head, Research Information & Portfolio Management.

 

Statement by Dinesh Thakur:

“I am relieved that the government’s investigation has concluded. I am thankful for the remarkable effort of United States Food and Drug Administration, Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, USAID, and State Medicaid Fraud Control Units. Their work has been tireless and dedicated.

“Eight years ago, as the Director of Project & Information Management at Ranbaxy, I discovered that the company falsified drug data and systemically violated current good manufacturing practices and good laboratory practices. Ranbaxy’s management was notified of these widespread problems. When they failed to correct the problems, it left me with no choice but to alert healthcare authorities.

“I worked with U.S. regulatory authorities for two years to expose the fraud. In furtherance of this effort, I filed a lawsuit to hold Ranbaxy accountable. It took us eight years to help government authorities unravel a complicated trail of falsified records and dangerous manufacturing practices that threatened to compromise the quality and safety of Ranbaxy drugs. Along the way, the government barred the importation of Ranbaxy drugs, held the company accountable for its data fraud under FDA’s Application Integrity Policy, and required it to implement corrective measures to prevent the problems from recurring.

“As a senior pharmaceutical executive, I understand the importance of regulatory oversight in ensuring drug quality and safety. There are unique challenges in a global drug market, which is highly dependent on international manufacturing and distribution. In fact, approximately 78 percent of prescription drugs dispensed in the United States are generic, and a growing percentage of drugs – both generic and name brand – is manufactured overseas. This case highlights the need for effective regulation that applies to drugs sold in the United States, regardless where they are manufactured.
I would like to thank FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigation, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Department of Justice, USAID, and Andrew M. Beato, Bob Muse, and Rory Kelly of Stein Mitchell Muse & Cipollone LLP. I hope that our actions and this case have helped to improve the quality and safety of drugs in the United States and abroad.”

(Source:Dinesh Thakur)

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Soros:Scholarships are better than charity

People who have become rich in China show real interest in philanthropy, which I think is very praiseworthy because I think it is appropriate for those who have benefited disproportionately that they should return some of it to those who are less fortunate. I think it will contribute to social harmony. I think the natural instinct is to engage in charity. But that has some negative side effects, because charity can turn the recipients into objects of charity, who become dependent instead of depending on themselves. There are people, like the sick and the old, who need to be taken care of. But particularly in the case of children and young people, it is much more important to enable them to improve themselves, giving them opportunities to learn. Scholarships are better than charity.-said George Soros

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Saudis demolish historical sites in Mecca

It is not permitted to glorify buildings and historical sites,” proclaimed Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz, then the kingdom’s highest religious authority, in a much-publicized fatwa in 1994. “Such action would lead to polytheism. … [S]o it is necessary to reject such acts and to warn others away from them.”

A pamphlet published last year by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, endorsed by Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and distributed at the Prophet’s Mosque, where Mohammed, Abu Bakr, and the Islamic Caliph Umar ibn Al Khattab are buried, reads, “The green dome shall be demolished and the three graves flattened in the Prophet’s Mosque,” according to Irfan Al Alawi, executive director of the London-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. This shocking sentiment was echoed in a speech by the late Muhammad ibn Al Uthaymeen, one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent Wahhabi clerics, who delivered sermons in Mecca’s Grand Mosque for over 35 years: “We hope one day we’ll be able to destroy the green dome of the Prophet Mohammed,” he said, in a recording provided by Al Alawi.

 

Sami Angawi, the founder and former director of Mecca’s Hajj Research Center and the most vocal opponent of the destruction of Mecca’s historic sites … estimates that over 300 antiquity sites in Mecca and Medina have already been destroyed [by 2008], such as the house of the first caliph, Abu Bakr, which was leveled to make room for the Mecca Hilton Hotel. (According to Ivor McBurney, a spokesman for Hilton, “We saw the tremendous opportunities to tap into Saudi Arabia’s religious tourism segment.”)

Over protests by groups like the Islamic Supreme Council of America and the Muslim Canadian Congress, Saudi authorities have authorized the destruction of hundreds of antiquities, such as an important eighteenth-century Ottoman fortress in Mecca that was razed to make way for the Abraj Al Bait Towers– a move the Turkish foreign minister condemned as “cultural genocide.” An ancient house belonging to Mohammed was recently razed to make room for, among other developments, a public toilet facility. An ancient mosque belonging to Abu Bakr has now been replaced by an ATM machine. And the sites of Mohammed’s historic battles at Uhud and Badr have been, with a perhaps unconscious nod to Joni Mitchell, paved to put up a parking lot. The remaining historical religious sites in Mecca can be counted on one hand and will likely not make it much past the next hajj, Angawi says: “It is incredible how little respect is paid to the house of God.”

 

When I questioned Habib Zain Al Abideen, the Saudi deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs, head of all the kingdom’s hajj-related construction projects, about the destruction of historical sites in Mecca, he seemed unconcerned about their religious significance. More important to him was that the hajj was “a good opportunity to visit Mecca and Medina, do some shopping, make a vacation out of it.”-from the Atlantic

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Remembering Nani Palkhivala on budget day

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A trader’s dilemma after 15 years of trading

The reason I’ve dreaded writing this post for a long time is because I currently find myself taking these questions to the third, and much more gut-wrenching level: Am I being smartly stubborn about sticking with a trading career that holds so much promise? Or am I being stubbornly stupid about a career that gives me nothing but heartache and I should just cut the cord and go dig ditches for a living? I haven’t wanted to write this post because part of me deep down inside fears the answer.

I’m coming up on the 15th Anniversary of my beginning this journey. I started trading in the summer of 1998 and during these 15 years, I’ve experienced fleeting success. Enough to sustain my curiosity, but not enough to secure my financial security. So many times repeatedly over the past decade plus I’ve put tremendous amounts of thought and energy into coming up with trading plans that have a positive expectancy that I was so sure where going to work this time, only to be knocked off course by an errant wave from a direction I hadn’t considered. Again and again. And lately, I’ve been asking myself if riding these waves further out to sea and further away from the Shore of Good Fortune for the past 15 years have been worth it? What do I have to show for it?

Trading is not supposed to be about the money; however, money is undeniably the byproduct of successfully satisfying your curiosity in the financial markets. It is the yardstick by which a Trader is measured. It pains me that after 15 years, it might be more appropriate to measure my success not by a yardstick but by a 12-inch ruler. Most people my age who’ve been in a career for 15 years have achieved some level of financial success and career satisfaction which has allowed them to start families, buy houses, build 401k nest eggs, make investments in other areas of interest, and go on frequent and fun vacations. Me, I’m still grinding it out, fingers crossed that the latest direction I’m on gets me a little bit closer to shore.

Part of me says there is no other path I could have chosen, this is the way it has to be. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I don’t come from a wealthy family. I didn’t have the right connections, the ivy league pedigree, the Congressman friend to give me insider trading tips. I’m a nobody who was born in a losing town who has to scratch and scrape and fight and sweat just to get a glimpse of the other side of the hill. And then the real work begins when I find out the downhill path to riches is paved with potholes, aggressive speed traps, inclement weather, and a faulty Apple Maps app.

The other part of me – which I’m fighting to suppress – says I’ve already put 15 of my best years into this. If I haven’t achieved my goals by now, when will I? If ever? I should just go and do something more productive with my life before its too late. I’m doing my best to ignore this side of my mind. But this is what makes me wonder if I’m being stubbornly stupid.

I haven’t answered this question yet. The Eternal Optimist in me is leaning toward Smartly Stubborn. My selfish hope is that putting this out there – the act of writing it out to cement my thoughts – will help prevent me from being stubbornly stupid. Only time and P&L will tell. I just hope it tells me soon.-By ChicagoSean