Early last year, former King Pharmaceuticals sales rep Anne Marie Hand notified her district manager that she was pregnant. She delivered the news just weeks after her manager was installed in this position and amid a transition in which the mid-sized drugmaker was being purchased by Pfizer. Her announcement did not go over well, though, and in fact, led to her termination several months later, according to a lawsuit Hand recently filed against Pfizer. Employment disputes are everyday affairs, of course, and this lawsuit pertains to just one employee. Nonetheless, discrimination against pregnant workers has gained notice within the pharmaceutical industry. Two years ago, for instance, Novartis agreed to pay $152.5 million to settle a class action discrimination lawsuit brought by female sales reps after a federal jury decided against the drugmaker.
