Yet another pharmaceutical industry executive is fighting a move by the US Department of Health & Human Services to exclude him from participating in federal healthcare programs. The latest to go to court is W. Scott Harkonen, who once headed InterMune and was sentenced earlier this year for wire fraud in connection with disseminating false and misleading statements about the results of a clinical trial of the Actimmune drug. Last year, Harkonen was excluded for a five-year period as the result of a conviction in a September 2009 trial and was later sentenced last to three yeas’ probation, six months of home confinement, a $20,000 fine and 200 hours of community service read the (HHS letter and administrative decision). During his tenure, which ended in 2003, he was accused of making up details about how effective the Actimmune medication was in combating a fatal lung disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF.
