Romney Rat Of The Day

Published Jun 13 2007, 02:40 PM by David S. Bernstein

This morning, pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott agreed to a $5.5 million settlement in a 33-state antitrust suit. Allegedly, Warner Chilcott paid Barr Pharmaceuticals $20 million, beginning in 2003, in return for which Barr agreed not to put to market its generic version of WC's oral contraceptive drug Ovcon (one of its biggest sellers), so that Ovcon could maintain its high price without competition.

Two of Warner Chilcott's directors are Mitt Romney maximum contributors: Stephen P. Murray of CCMP Capital, and longtime Bain Capital execJohn Connaughton.

They both joined that board in 2004 -- when Romney's old company Bain Capital led a group that bought Warner Chilcott for $3.1 billion. They were both on the board while WC used the time it had literally bought from Barr to transition from old Ovcon to new chewable Ovcon, which it could get under patent protection. In the midst of this, they brought the company public in 2006. Lawsuits on behalf of stock purchasers are still working their way through federal court, alleging that the company misrepresented what was going on with Ovcon.