April 1996-July 1996: Parke-David Sales Reps Instructed to Market Off-Label Uses for Neurontin

David Franklin later accuses drug company Parke-Davis of instructing its sales representatives to pressure doctors to prescribe the drug Neurontin for off-label uses. This marketing tactic is part of a larger effort aimed at increasing Neurontin prescriptions for uses not approved by the FDA (see 1996-2000). “I was trained to do things and did things that were blatantly illegal,” he says. “I knew my job was to falsely gain physicians’ trust and trade on my graduate degree.… I’d tell them we had physicians across the county, some involved in clinical trials, and others who had hundreds of patients on Neurontin, all getting an extraordinary response rate. We’d make them think everyone was using it but them.… [W]e were taking people who were moderately controlled on another drug and experimenting with Neurontin. We were gambling with people’s lives.” Franklin quits after two executives pressure him to get with the program. When Franklin tells one of them that he’s leaving, the executive warns, “I can’t guarantee what is going to happen to you or your career.” [Boston Globe, 3/12/2003]