‘What happened next?’
‘I was asked to leave.’
‘Fired?’
‘I was given a financial incentive to bring my period of consultancy to an end,’ she said diplomatically. ‘It all left a very bad taste in my mouth. I left America and came back to Italy, which is where I am from.’
‘What was your connection with Julian Denver?’
‘I had very little awareness of him whilst I was working for Denver Chemicals. Obviously you know the name of the CEO of your company, but beyond that we had no contact. I was settled back in Italy, actually, doing some academic work at one of the universities, when Julian got in touch with me.’
‘When was this?’
At first she looked reluctant to tell them.
‘Six weeks ago. He flew to Rome to meet me. He knew I’d been working on Rheladrex in the pharmacovigilance department and had heard I had left the company, learnt I’d been paid off. I don’t know how, but he seemed to know about the potential side effects of the drug. He said that someone he knew was taking it and had died. He wanted to know what I knew; he wanted to know all the risks.’
‘So you told him?’ said Rachel.
‘He was the CEO of the company. I couldn’t not. I told him that we were potentially sitting on a ticking time bomb that could cause fatalities, irreparable damage to people’s lungs and hearts, not to mention billions in potential payouts. I told him that I felt the senior management at Denver Chemicals were underreporting the adverse effects to the FDA.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He talked about pulling the drug.’
Diana felt her heart surge. The image of Julian, a hero – flying across Europe to do the right thing blotted out all thoughts of him as the unfaithful husband.
‘Just like that?’ asked Rachel.
‘Voluntary withdrawal.’ She nodded.
‘And is that usual?’
‘When you have a drug with known adverse side effects, there are a few things you can do,’ said Dr Russi carefully. ‘You can carry on marketing it and wait until you get pulled up by the FDA or one of the other pharmaceutical regulatory bodies.’
‘And what happens then?’
‘Sometimes the FDA asks you to put a black box warning on the drug – it’s an alert that goes on the packaging. That’s the strongest warning they require and signifies that medical studies indicate that the drug carries a significant risk of serious or life-threatening side effects. Or you get ordered to pull the drug off the market. Voluntary withdrawal does happen, but not very often.’ She sipped her coffee.
‘What did Julian think?’ asked Rachel.
‘Julian was cynical about black box warnings,’ said Adriana. ‘Yes, they decrease usage, but millions of people will still take the drugs. Julian had a grave moral dilemma about keeping such a drug on the market. He said that saving lives was more important than making money. We weren’t sure how dangerous Rheladrex really was, but something was wrong with it and he didn’t want to take the risk. Before I was fired, I copied a lot of my reports, took them home. Just in case. I gave them to Julian, and when he’d read them his mind seemed to be made up that the drug was too dangerous to stay on the market.’
Adriana reached into her handbag and pulled out a five-euro note, which she put under her saucer.
‘I should go.’
‘Please, stay,’ pressed Rachel. ‘This is really helpful.’
‘Honestly – I want to put all this behind me, not get dragged back into it,’ she said softly. ‘I tried to do something commendable, but when it didn’t work, I took the pay-off from Denver. I’m not proud of that, but it now means I can do lower-paid jobs that might make a positive difference. The sort of difference Julian wanted to make.’
‘Do you think Julian’s opinion might have put him in danger?’ said Rachel quietly. Diana felt her lungs tighten.
‘I hope not. Because then I am also in trouble,’ said Adriana, rising to her feet. ‘Now I really must go.’
Diana watched her disappear down the busy street, then closed her eyes tightly, as if she wanted to block out what the woman had told her. When she opened them again, Rachel was on the phone.
‘Who are you calling?’ she asked.