For nearly ten years I was silenced. I was known only as Jane Doe, working in pharmaceutical sales undercover as whistleblower for the Department of Justice. It was a high-stakes tightrope I was walking, but no one in my life could know about it – not even my own family. On the outside, I kept up a good front. But inside, my heart felt like lead box: nothing could penetrate it, and nothing could escape. I suffered in silence, existing in survival mode. And now that I’ve survived, I finally get to tell my story.
Long before I became a whistleblower, I’d been conditioned to keep secrets. As a child, I was sexually abused by my father during an era when no one spoke about such things. I thought keeping pain inside equaled strength. So, for much of my career in big pharma, I kept quiet about the problems I encountered early on, like the industry’s rampant misogyny and sexual harassment. I didn’t speak out because I couldn’t risk getting fired: I was a single mother to a special-needs son. My health insurance provided the medication that kept him alive.
But then came a new job at a company called Questcor, where I was tasked with selling Acthar, a drug to treat Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a devastating neurological disease that strikes indiscriminately. I saw many formerly vibrant people, some only in their twenties, confined to wheelchairs. Some lost their vision, or the ability to speak. In some cases, patients lost all control of their bodies. For these people, Acthar was a...
Since emerging as the country’s nominated top health official in January, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spread 12 provably false health claims in government hearings, media appearances, and on social ...