Pfizer Exec Gets 6 Months' Home Confinement for Off-Label Bextra Sales

Thomas Farina, the Pfizer sales manager convicted for his role in leading "The Highlanders," a team of rogue drug reps who promoted Bextra for off-label use in Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to home confinement and electronic monitoring -- probably via ankle bracelet -- for six months.

He will remain on probation for three years. No monetary fine was imposed beyond a $100 court fee.

The move brings to a close a dark chapter for Pfizer, which agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle federal charges that the sales had defrauded Medicare. Convicted earlier was Mary Holloway, who was fined $75,000 and given two years' probation for directing a sales team of about 100 reps who distributed off-label. Farina assisted Holloway in that effort, in which they touted Bextra for various types of post-operative pain even though it was not FDA-approved for that use. Holloway alleged at her sentencing that Pfizer's management approved and arranged the off-label promotion. The company even put out a press release touting off-label uses. Farina further entangled himself by deleting files from his computer after the investigation of Bextra began. He referred to his sales team as "The Highlanders," a reference to a movie about a group of immortal warriors who must kill or be killed.

Court documents state that Farina left Pfizer in March 2005 to take a position at Abbott Labs as a sales manager in Rochester, N.Y. He will lose that job as a result of this conviction, his sentencing memo states.

The memo adds one new detail to the case -- that Farina and a colleague altered post-operative briefing sheets while working to encourage surgeons to use Bextra. The Cox-2 painkiller has since been withdrawn from the market due to its similarity to Merck's Vioxx.Here's the court's sentencing memo:

Judge Joseph L. Tauro: Sentencing held on 7/16/2009 for Thomas Farina (1), Count(s) 2, The court orders the defendant placed on probation for a term of 3 years with the first 6 months to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring. The Court further imposes a special assessment of $100; Count(s) 3-4, Acquitted and Discharged. Government to notify the Court on what they intend to do about Count 1. ... (Attorneys present: Susan Poswistillo and Sarah Bloom for the Government. William Kettlewell for the defendant.)

You can read Farina's memo to the judge prior to his sentencing here, along with other original documents in the case.

• Previous BNET coverage of Bextra:
• Pfizer's Off-Label Bextra Team Was Called "The Highlanders"
• Pfizer Exec: Company Approved of Off-Label Bextra Promotion
• Document Shows Rogue Bextra Operation Inside Pfizer
• Pfizer District Sales Manager Guilty of Altering Off-Label Celebrex Documents
• Federal Prosecutor Warns Drug Companies on Off-Label Promotion: "This Must Stop"
• How Pfizer Hid a $2.3 Bill. Bextra Settlement in Plain Sight
• Pfizer's Wyeth Buy Eclipses $2.3 Bill. Bextra Troubles; 19,000 Layoffs to Come