Nephron Pharmaceuticals, a West Columbia, South Carolina-based drug manufacturer, is facing a lawsuit from its former chief human resources officer, Nola Grant. The lawsuit alleges racial discrimination, creation of a hostile work environment based on race, disability discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, and unlawful suppression of protected whistleblower activity.

Allegations of Fentanyl Loss and Cover-Up

Grant’s complaint contains the explosive allegation that during her tenure, Nephron experienced a loss of fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance. According to Grant, the company failed to report the loss to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as required by law. Instead, Nephron allegedly expressed “unease and fear of reporting the matter to the proper authorities.” Grant ultimately reported the fentanyl loss, which her complaint described as “protected whistleblower activity.” After she made the report, Nephron’s “retaliatory conduct escalated” against her, Grant claimed, ultimately resulting in her “wrongful termination.”

Nephron chief executive officer Lou Kennedy is repeatedly singled out in the lawsuit, including allegations that she “lied to the FDA” regarding the storage of certain drugs at one of the company’s warehouses. The complaint also alleges that Kennedy orchestrated a “late-night clearing and hauling off of the entire contents” of the warehouse in anticipation of an FDA inquiry.

Nephron also allegedly provided FDA investigators with “altered surveillance footage” when they requested to review the preceding 24 hours of video surveillance from the warehouse. This conduct, according to the complaint, constitutes the destruction and concealment of evidence and the submission of altered records to a federal regulatory agency, in violation of federal law governing FDA-regulated 503B outsourcing facilities.

Original reporting: FITSNews — read the source article.