Jim Wetta

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Jim Wetta is an American pharmaceutical salesman from Northern California. He became a two-time whistleblower after the U.S. Justice Department announced its settlements with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis, Indiana in January 2009 and AstraZeneca PLC of London, England in April 2010. Wetta played the key role in both Justice Department settlement agreements, and the companies agreed to pay a combined total of nearly $2 billion after federal investigators claimed over six years of off-label uses of two highly successful anti-psychotic medications. The drugs had allegedly been promoted to health care professionals in a manner not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Wetta began his pharmaceutical career in the early 1990s when he was hired to sell pharmaceuticals to specific health care professionals. He worked for Eli Lilly as a specialty pharmaceutical sales representative, promoting the company's blockbuster anti-psychotic medication Zyprexa. In 2002 he resigned from Eli Lilly after refusing to participate in the off-label promotion of the drug. He filed a complaint with the United States Justice Department after leaving Eli Lilly. Not long afterward, Wetta was hired by AstraZeneca. At AstraZeneca, he found himself expected to promote AstraZeneca's anti-psychotic drug Seroquel off-label; in 2004 he filed a second complaint with the government, this time against AstraZeneca. In April 2010, the Justice Department announced that AstraZeneca PLC would pay $520 million to resolve allegations it improperly marketed the antipsychotic Seroquel.
At Eli Lilly, Wetta quit after refusing to promote Zyorexa "off-label" and for engaging in sales tactics in violation of drug promotion policies. His employer allegedly notified him that the sales tactics were necessary if he was to keep his job. Some of the tactics included arranging for certain drugs to be switched on patients without their knowledge, and off-label marketing of Seroquel to patient types for which the medication is not indicated, for example to child and adolescent psychiatrists and to primary-care physicians who treat elderly dementia sufferers. He was then let go by AstraZeneca.
Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to criminal charge for the mis-branding and off-label sales and promotion of their antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Eli Lilly agreed to pay a criminal fine of $515 million, one of the largest ever levied against a pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly also paid an additional $800 million as part of a civil settlement with states and the Federal Government.
Each of his lawsuits were filed under the U.S. False Claims Act. The law, which goes back to the Civil War, prohibits people or businesses from defrauding the government. The False Claims Act also provides incentives for individuals who suspect wrongdoing to come forward. Both of his lawsuits were filed confidentially in federal court to protect his identity and safety. After several years of working with federal prosecutors within the Justice Department, it was determined that both cases had enough merit for the government to pursue.

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