Drugmaker Sanofi is the subject of a former paralegal’s whistleblower suit claiming she was let go for calling attention to tens of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts allegedly awarded to vendors in violation of federal law.
The suit, filed Dec. 3 in Essex County, N.J., Superior Court, alleges the company, in 2012 and 2013, made payments to vendors to encourage them to eschew other drug makers’ products in favor of their own.
For reporting the conduct, the plaintiff, Diane Ponte, allegedly was demoted and ultimately fired, and, along the way, threatened by company officials, including an assistant general counsel, according to the suit.
Sanofi, for its part, has denied the allegations. 
According to the complaint, Ponte, who had been an employee at Sanofi’s U.S. headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., since 2001 and a paralegal in the contracts unit since 2008, was responsible for reviewing and approving contracts on behalf of the legal department for compliance with Medicare, Medicaid and federal antikickback laws.