NEW YORK—
Here is a chronology of events in the ImClone Systems Inc. case:1986: Samuel D. Waksal founds biopharmaceutical company ImClone Systems Inc., begins operations in a converted shoe factory in Manhattan.
The company focuses on immunology-based diagnostics and infectious disease vaccines.
Early 1990s: ImClone shifts focus to developing targeted cancer therapies.
February 2001: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants the company fast-track designation for Erbitux, a promising drug for the treatment of colon, head and neck, pancreatic and lung cancers.
The designation expedites the review of a drug if it is intended for the treatment of a life-threatening condition.
Sept. 2001: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. buys 20 percent of ImClone for $1 billion, or $70 a share, and agrees to pay an additional $1 billion in milestone payments.
Deal is to codevelop and copromote Erbitux in the United States, Canada and Japan.
Oct. 31, 2001: ImClone and Bristol-Myers Squibb submit application for FDA approval of Erbitux. It is ImCloneÂ’s first FDA application.
Dec. 27, 2001: Martha Stewart, a friend of Waksal, sells almost 4,000 shares of ImClone. WaksalÂ’s daughter, Aliza Waksal, also unloads her stock.
Dec. 28, 2001: FDA announces it has rejected ImCloneÂ’s application for Erbitux. The announcement subsequently sends ImCloneÂ’s shares plummeting.
May 22, 2002: Waksal resigns as ImClone chief executive.
June 6: The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating ImClone trading, says it is probing StewartÂ’s stock sale.
June 12: Waksal is arrested, accused of advising family members to sell their shares before the FDA announcement and trying to dump his shares.
June 18: Stewart issues a statement denying wrongdoing and says her sale was based on a previous agreement with her broker to sell ImCloneÂ’s shares if they fell below $60.
June 21: Merrill Lynch & Co. says it has suspended StewartÂ’s broker, Peter Bacanovic, and his assistant, Douglas Faneuil, after its investigation finds conflicting accounts about whether StewartÂ’s sell agreement existed.
July 24: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. acknowledges that her legal problems are taking a toll. The company halves its third-quarter earnings forecast.
Aug. 12: Waksal pleads innocent to a criminal indictment that includes new charges of obstruction of justice and bank fraud and previous insider-trading and perjury counts.
Aug. 20: Lawyers for Stewart hand over more than a thousand pages of e-mail and telephone records to the House investigative panel.
Sept. 10: The House committee asks the Justice Department to begin a criminal investigation into whether Stewart knowingly lied to lawmakers.
Oct. 2: Faneuil, 27, pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge that he was paid off to keep silent about an insider-stock tip allegedly given to Stewart.
Oct. 3: Stewart resigns from the board of the New York Stock Exchange.
Oct. 15: Waksal pleads guilty to securities fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.
