Ex-Pfizer Employee Claims Firing Violated CT's Whistle-Blower Law
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The trail between a former Pfizer employee and the drug company began Monday.
The trial between pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a scientist who claims to be intermittently paralyzed by a virus she was exposed to while working at the company's Groton lab began in Hartford Federal Court Monday.
Becky McClain, of Deep River, said she was exposed in 2002 or 2003 to a manipulated form of lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to AIDS. According to the Hartford Courant, medical experts working for McClain say the virus has altered her body’s ability to channel potassium, creating a condition that can cause complete paralysis multiple times a month.
McClain was terminated from Pfizer in 2005. She claims to have been fired in violation of Connecticut’s whistle-blower law, saying she was let go in retaliation for asking questions about Pfizer’s safety practices.
Pfizer denies McClain’s claims, saying her refusal to come to work was the reason for her firing, and an outside investigation found she was not infected by any materials while at Pfizer. In a statement the company said, "...in 2005 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an eight month investigation of Ms. McClain's claims regarding discrimination and the safety of the workplace and concluded that her claims were without merit."
McClain claims that a colleague was near her working on “dangerous lentivirus material and embryonic stem cells,” the Courant reported. The work was done on an open lab bench and without a biological containment system, according to her suit. McClain’s suit says that despite warnings from a supervisor, she repeatedly voiced issues about laboratory safety following a malfunction of a containment system. According to McClain, the malfunction persisted for a year, not the eight months that Pfizer contends.
Posted Monday, Mar 15, 2010 - 8:12 PM EST
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