Abbot Laboratories in the dock, RTE Representing Them

 What RTE says: Abbot bring 800 jobs, have been in éiRe for 75 years and want planning permission for a green field site. But a cursory glance at their violation track record and have they been sued before? uh, yep! 700 million dollars in HealthcareViolations, fraud, Environmental Violations, Government Contracting .... And paying doctors to implant their vascular products. And for Employment Discrimination.

Violation Tracker Abbot Laboratories

It is clinical trials (ie animas testing) they have in mind for the Kilkenny plant and genetic engineering. So yep abject terror and a continuum (Charles River Laboratories' word) of suffering for them.

And then just the corruption of the whole gene pool messing about with millions of mutating, genes with no one within a hundred mile radius who knows how to oversee their biosecurity.

Is it starting to look like they're not the prosperous expanding wholesome family-,run business that rte suggest? Kilkenny and Donegal councils should say No. Afterwards it'll be too late.

Abbot laboratories top 5 offenses:

Government contracting-related offenses: 698,547,929 penalty total – 9 charges

Healthcare-related offenses:” 27,950,000 – 2 charges

Safety-related issues 27,000,000 - 1 charge

Competition-related offenses 18,000,000 1 charge

False claims about theur products 698,547, 929 – 9 records

Drug or medical equipment safety violation: 27,000,000 1 record

Off-label or unapproved promotion of medical products 26,000,000 1 record

Kickbacks and bribery: 18,000,000 2 records

Accounting or fraud or deficiencies 13,000,000 1 record

In 2016 Employment Discrimination – national origin and disability 210,000

2018 Health-care related offenses, unapproved promotion of medical products, kickbacks and bribery 25,000,000

2003: 600,000,000 600 million in government contracting fraud!!

2019: 13,747,929 government contracting related offenses. Company infiltrated wholesale prices used in setting rates for Medicaid reimbursements

2013: 5,475,000 for paying kickbacks to induce doctors to implant the company’s carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products

2007: Environmental violation pesticide regulation: 9,476

2013: Environmental violation Air pollution 93,700

Clinical trials for blood glucose monitors with sensors that ‘sit under the skin’The Kilkenny plant will be ‘future proofed’ to manufacture their next stage diabetes monitors too.

What are our regulatory processes?What if Abbot don’t comply? What does Kilkenny County Council plan to do when they destroy the gene pool, the environment and " induce every doctor to implant" a remote monitoring device in patients and breed and recruit millions of animals for clinical trials? Do we have anyone big enough to say no?

If that planning permission door is opened, we won't ever get a say so in what they do here.

Oh yes, and there are this year's lawsuits against Abbot for sick and dying babies from their formulas but claimants haven't been able to get cases through one court to the next due to a technicality (yes we've heard that one before), so are we all grand with Abbot building these giant unaccountable lunacies here?

"Plant Shutdown

In February 2022, Abbott recalled baby formulas from the market and shutdown their Michigan plant. This is after complaints of infants being sick with serious bacterial infections while consuming formula product made at the Sturgis plant. The recall has caused nationwide shortage of formula milk with at least 73% of baby products out of stock according to data firm Datasembly. In a recent development and with Abbotts' meeting the initial requirement of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the facility could start operation and begin production of other special and metabolic formulas in 2–3 weeks time."

In 2021, two of Abbott Laboratories' subsidiaries, Arriva Medical LLC and Alere Inc, had to pay $160M to resolve claims that they had fraudulently billed Medicare for glucose monitors. Supposedly, Arriva used free glucose monitors to entice patients into placing more orders, then took kickbacks on the increased sales. The company was also accused of charging Medicare for glucose monitors given to ineligible patients, including patients who were dead"

Do we want jobs like this?

This is what one member of staff had to say in a letter to the food and drugs authorities:

1. The Falsification of Records – On multiple occasions, and in various ways, records have been knowingly falsified. In most but not all of the situations, information of a material nature was not disclosed. This included testing seals on empty cans; signing verifications without adequate knowledge; understating or inaccurately describing events so as to limit or avoid oversight; issuing certifications of projection pages bereft of pertinent data; shipping packages with fill weights lower than represented on the labels; failing to maintain accurate maintenance records; and prematurely removing holds in the absence of all requisite approvals. 

2. Releasing Untested Infant Formula – The Sturgis site performed a time code removal after the discovery of microorganisms (“micros”) in a batch of infant formula. The remaining portion of the batch outside the time code removal was released without additional testing. On another occasion product was not re-called from the market even after management became aware of a nonconformity (“NC”). 

3. The 2019 FDA Audit – Active efforts were undertaken and even celebrated during and after the 2019 FDA audit to keep the auditors from learning of certain events believed to be associated with the discovery of micros in infant formula at the Sturgis site.
4. Clean-in-Place Staffing and Practices – The Sturgis site has continued to permit lax practices associated with clean-in-place (“CIP”) procedures. The Sturgis site failed and continues to fail to have staff in place with sufficient training and experience to review CIP charts. Nor are CIP charts regularly reviewed prior to the release of a batch. CIP checklists do not require signatures of those performing the tasks and are not otherwise subject to audit by QS staff.
5. Failure to Take Corrective Measures – The Sturgis site has repeatedly failed to undertake reasonable measures to reduce natural or unavoidable defects to the level feasible as mandated by the current Good Manufacturing Practices (“cGMPs”). Deficient testing procedures known to be prone to causing mistakes have not been corrected. The Sturgis site continues to rely on staff with insufficient training and experience to interact with third-party labs (“TPL”). 

6. Lack of Traceability – The Sturgis site has ongoing problems associated with the traceability of its products. The automatic labeler frequently failed to work properly and led to significant difficulties in retracing product. QS staff never knew with certainty if an affected pallet was retrieved. 

I wonder if the IrishAntiVivisection.org group will help us shut this horrible idea soon and then make sure there isn't a large animals testing facility made here, requested by multinationals. Even a tender was put out to see if it was viable - yes, a tender is public money. Grim developments all round. 

We don't need or want Abbot pharmaceuticals. And I don't believe that they have contributed  2 billion in taxes to the public purse. We should ask to see some evidence of that.

Is our county vet a match for this corporation? Bear in mind, the same county vet wanted the major dog pound contract to go to the knacker's lorry, with no address in Ireland who get paid twice over as they could invoice for live and carcass, collection and disposal. 

Anyway, if you think there are some important points made here that Kilkenny or Donegal Councils should consider and block planning permission, please copy and paste and send this on.