Sarbanes-Oxley, Cancer Drugs and Discrimination Law

The National Law Journal warns that penalties in the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules for public companies can extend to individuals and private entities.

Drug maker Cephalon receives approval from the FDA to sell a new anti-leukemia drug.

Restaurant owner Joe Vento creates controversy with a sign advising customers to order in English only.

1. BUSINESS

The National Law Journal warns that penalties in the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules for public companies can extend to individuals and private entities.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley in practice:

“Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, as interpreted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, mandates that auditors verify a broadly defined set of ‘internal controls’ at public companies. Auditors have been known to look at things of such little relevance to shareholders as the number of letters in employee passwords and which employees have office keys.”

 

2. HEALTH

Drug maker Cephalon receives approval from the FDA to sell a new anti-leukemia drug.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on what cardiologists and oncologists think about the pace of the FDA’s approval process:

“…a majority of cardiologists (57%) believe that FDA approval delays result in patient deaths, while oncologists were just about evenly split on this issue (47% agreeing, 48% disagreeing). But even here, where negative views of FDA were not held by a majority of oncologists, the fact that such a large percentage of them were critical is itself of serious concern. Something is wrong when an agency charged with protecting public health is viewed this negatively by physicians fighting for their patients’ lives.”

 

3. LEGAL

Restaurant owner Joe Vento creates controversy with a sign advising customers to order in English only.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on charges that English-only rules constitute discrimination:

“There’s a tendency among many liberal ‘civil rights’ bureaucrats to assume that any practice they dislike must be ‘discriminatory.’ Thus, when businesses mandate the use of English by customers (in taking orders) or employees (when conversing on the job), bureaucrats claim that that is ‘national origin’ or race ‘discrimination’ or ‘harassment.’ Philadelphia’s civil-rights agency seems to have resisted this temptation, at least for the time being, in refusing to find a business guilty of discrimination because it asked customers to place orders in English. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations ‘has ruled that English-only signs at a famous cheesesteak shop are not discriminatory.’”

 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].