March 8, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SYDNEY – Global pharma giant AstraZeneca employed a man in Australia who allegedly falsified his credentials to pose as a doctor, according to reports from the Australian Broadcast Company.
Shyam Acharya allegedly stole the identity of Sarang Chitale, a doctor based in India, and gained registration with the Medical Board of New South Wales in 2003, ABC reported. According to reports, Acharya worked as a physician in multiple Australian hospitals for more than a decade and then later took a position with AstraZeneca in its Sydney office. AstraZeneca confirmed that Acharya was employed with the company under his alias for approximately 11 months between 2013 and 2014. AstraZeneca told ABC that it did not check his medical credentials because they were not relevant to his work on the company’s medical affairs team.
“At the time of his employment, the relevant local checks were conducted as part of our recruitment process,” the company said in a statement to ABC. “His stated overseas medical qualification was not a core requirement of the role therefore was not investigated at the time.”
AstraZeneca was not the only pharma company Acharya worked for under his assumed identity. He also worked for privately held Novotech, a Sydney-based company that runs clinical trials, ABC reported. It was Novotech that ultimately alerted authorities. The company told ABC that it became aware Acharya may have “misrepresented his identity and qualifications.”
“Novotech immediately took steps to investigate and contacted the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the NSW Police (amongst others). Those organizations conducted their own investigations into this issue with which Novotech fully cooperated, the company said in a statement.
In his roles with AstraZeneca and Novotech, Acharya had no direct contact with patients, both companies said. There was no information provided on whether or not Acharya’s skill-set, or lack thereof, may have compromised any work performed at either AstraZeneca or Novotech. In a separate report, ABC said one clinical trial conducted at a hospital that Acharya took part in was reported and patients were notified. It is unknown if this trial was being conducted in concert with AstraZeneca or Novotech.
Although he assumed the identity of an Indian doctor, there is some indication that Acharya may have actually had medical training in India. Acharya’s whereabouts are currently unknown. Australian authorities are searching for him and are ready to file charges for a breach of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law when he is found.
