Biz

Nikki Haley’s Nephron Debacle: Allegations Ramp Up

WHISTLEBLOWER: DOCUMENTS EXPOSE CORPORATE ESPIONAGE || By FITSNEWS || Last October, this website published a sprawling exclusive on the status of Nephron Pharmaceuticals – one of S.C. governor Nikki Haley‘s crowning crony capitalist “achievements.” The company – which received millions in taxpayer-funded incentives – built a gleaming new facility in…

WHISTLEBLOWER: DOCUMENTS EXPOSE CORPORATE ESPIONAGE

|| By FITSNEWS || Last October, this website published a sprawling exclusive on the status of Nephron Pharmaceuticals – one of S.C. governor Nikki Haley‘s crowning crony capitalist “achievements.”

The company – which received millions in taxpayer-funded incentives – built a gleaming new facility in West Columbia, S.C., where its leaders (donors and close friends of the governor) vowed to create 707 new positions (at more than $70,000 a pop).

FITS was suspicious of this deal from the beginning – and we said so.  In fact, we published a detailed story regarding its questionable financials – and also wrote extensively about pay-to-play allegations involving Nephron and the governor.  Not only that, we busted Haley in a lie regarding her prior connections to the company’s founders – Bill Kennedy and his wife, Lou Kennedy (who have contributed thousands of dollars to Haley’s political campaigns and who frequently allowed Haley access to Nephron’s private jet).

But the pièce de résistance was our story last fall exposing Nephron’s problems from the inside.

Among those problems?  Abysmal (and declining) employment numbers – which as of October 2014 amounted to less than one tenth of the promised jobs.

There were also allegations of corporate espionage, which one whistleblower told FITS at the time could be proved by reviewing specific “batch records” – or processes for the manufacture of certain “batches” of medicine.

According to our source, proprietary pharmaceutical “batch records” prepared by another company, The Ritedose Corporation (TRC) of Columbia, S.C., wound up at Nephron – where officials engaged in a clumsy effort to disguise the documents.

In fact we recently obtained a stack of such documents …

(Click to enlarge)

nephron

(Pic: Provided)

FITS has yet to receive comment from Nephron, TRC or the Department of Commerce regarding the claims made by whistleblowers over the course of our investigation … which is ongoing.

And of course Haley has remained silent …

So … what’s the latest with this company?  And its claims?  And the massive taxpayer investment South Carolinians have shelled out on their behalf?

It’s not clear …

We do know that earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – specifically its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) – announced new “draft guidances on compounding,” which is the large scale pharmaceutical production envisioned for Nephron’s South Carolina facility.

The new regulations are currently in the comment phase, and are expected to take effect later this spring.

“The guidance will be used to allow or disallow compounding at the (South Carolina) site,” our source said, adding that “restrictions will also be placed on interstate sales from the Orlando manufacturing facility.”

The point of the regulations?

“In this particular case it’s not allowing a company with known contamination issues in Florida to begin the same standard of business in South Carolina,” our source said. “These are prescription medications not beer!”

Count on FITS to continue investigating this crony capitalist nightmare …

***

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23 comments

sparklecity March 26, 2015 at 12:56 pm

Well……………..
Just let get rid of the FDA and let the “Free Market” decide if making beer instead of prescription medications are on the same scale!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply
Prescription Beer March 26, 2015 at 1:24 pm

I’ll have an Ibuprofen IPA please.

Reply
sparklecity March 26, 2015 at 1:53 pm

and the cool quips keep coming!!!!

Reply
shifty henry March 26, 2015 at 2:23 pm

When a body meets a body…. somebody’s been in
the Rye

Reply
shifty henry March 26, 2015 at 2:24 pm

A seal walks into a tavern and the bartender says, “What’ll you have?”
“Anything but a Canadian Club.”

Reply
Buz Martin March 26, 2015 at 1:39 pm

I’ll have a Bud-Pfizer Lite, please.

Reply
sparklecity March 26, 2015 at 1:51 pm

You got ‘er!!! – next one’s on me!!!
I’ll take a Hefe-Pfizer while you’re at it barkeep!!!!!

Reply
Guest March 26, 2015 at 1:14 pm

Did Trikki Nikki’s insurance buddy, have any involvement in this?

https://www.fitsnews.com/2015/03/21/nikki-haleys-super-shady-nyc-friend/

Reply
GrandTango March 26, 2015 at 1:27 pm

LMAO….Government-check-gobbling and Speedo-Clad FITS, w/ his alcohol-drenched henchman, Boz…equally Speedo-clad…trying to sink yet another SC job-provider…

All the while FITS is ignorantly dumb on the Airbus Crash that makes him look doubly-foolish…

First FITS says that only Dumb@$$ SC Boeing workers would produce a plane that could crash….

And secondly: FITS and Obama claim there is NO Terrorists in the world, since Obama has conquered radical Islam, and the only enemy of America is capitalism, racism and the Jews…

Evidence of FITS stupidity abounds, but he chooses to chase the unicorns in his kooky-RonPaul mind…LMAO…

Reply
Buz Martin March 26, 2015 at 1:38 pm

I ain’t in this, GT. I can count the times Will and I have worked closely together on no hands. Coz we ain’t never done it. Speedo? Nawsuh, Misttah Low Rinse, I ain’t gone be wearin’ me no sitch ez ‘at. Woudn’t be fittin’!

Looks like some solid intel to me, though. We’ll see if this has legs.

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GrandTango March 26, 2015 at 2:17 pm

Super sleuths all of you…

I’m still waiting for USC to vacate CWS wins…and FITS book containing that guaranteed smokin” gun…LMAO..solid intel for sure..hahaha…

Reply
shifty henry March 26, 2015 at 3:02 pm

TO: Mr. Shifty Henry

FROM: William F. Buckley, Jr. (reply to your request)
—————————————–
As Senior Editor for Lackluster Library Touch ‘n Tell Books, I will share with you the following information:

We have been in possession of the first draft of this book for many, many months.

We are in the process of resolving with the author several matters regarding content.

For example, we are attempting to educate the author in the matter of “chapters,” in the sense that each additional
paragraph does not constitute a new chapter.

Another issue is the author’s curious sense for the title of his book. We do not believe that either “How to Ball Without a Chain” or “New Uses for Old Friends” would be
an appropriate title.

Once these, and other pertinent issues, are resolved
readers will be thrilled with this future blockbuster.

Reply
Job Provider March 26, 2015 at 5:58 pm

Send in your resume, providing of course you could get your fat ass off the Lay-Z-Boy long enough. And why are you barking at Liberals all day anyway? You haven’t changed one fucking opinion and provide nothing but old fart white man bitterness 24/7.

Fucking sad you consider this “a job.”

Reply
GrandTango March 26, 2015 at 8:18 pm

Stupid and vapid cliché much?

Reply
Jeffy On The Word March 26, 2015 at 8:26 pm

Speaking of “stupid and vapid cliché much…”

You could use a new vocabulary.

Reply
Bible Thumper March 26, 2015 at 1:47 pm

There are 361 Census Bureau metropolitan statistical areas delineated by the Office of Management and Budget. As of February, three of the top twenty are are in South Carolina,

http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/releases/2015/cb15-56_graphic.pdf

Reply
GrandTango March 26, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Since FITS claims an undergrad and a graduate degree from USC….and his father was USC member…

Did FITS receive subsidies or incentives through the government to stay in school so long? …before taking a government job in which he was busted for peddling influence?

How does one so awash in privilege. … judge so many others?

Reply
nitrat March 26, 2015 at 2:57 pm

If it isn’t done one custom prescription for one individual at a time. it shouldn’t be allowed to call itself a compounding pharmacy instead of a drug manufacturer.

We have had too many people die or be permanently disabled across the country in the last few years thanks to the loophole that allows virtually no regulation by states or feds of these mass compounding companies
.
What was Templeton and DHEC doing with/for this compounder

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Observant March 26, 2015 at 3:17 pm

I agree!

Re: DHEC – probably nothing. Fed grant ran out, and state discontinued funding (and enforcing) state equivalent of FDA Act (relative to drugs and devices) around 1990. As best one can tell, DHEC still enforces the “professional” part of the controlled substances act (the state act was more restrictive than the federal in several areas), although apparently not as vigorously as in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. So far Nephron hasn’t gotten into the controlled substances area.

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CNSYD March 26, 2015 at 4:14 pm

Didn’t you get the memo? Per Folks, Templeton is the greatest thing to ever grace SC with their presence. She not only doesn’t do wrong, she is incapable of doing wrong.

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Murray Lake March 26, 2015 at 10:22 pm

FITS isn’t off the mark on this one. These are serious allegations and there is way too much coziness between Haley and the Nephron folks. Lexington County citizens took a real bath with this “investment” and the true nature of the “deal” is still to be told. The Kennedy’s should be embarrassed holding elaborate big receptions in the aircraft hangar they call a plant while guests look down on empty labs and vacant space. Whats the deal??? Do they even employ anybody other than the ones who follow Queen Lou Lou around like a bunch of puppies and suck up to her every whim? Remember, Lou Lou left Orlando when the town wouldn’t suck up to her demands. Only a matter of time before Nephron leaves Lexington County. With actions like those reported by FITS it may be not be voluntary. . . . .

Reply
richard1head March 27, 2015 at 5:37 am

nikki sucks ass her and her cronies the sc lawmakers pass laws insuring we the sc workers have no workplace rights or unemployment to help us. but they help big money all the time.

Reply
Dan Ruck March 27, 2015 at 9:20 am

Wow! Good story!

Reply

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