By Greg Hazley

The third phony news release to hit a major newswire in the past week was issued June 18 by Business Wire purportedly on behalf of Javelin Pharmaceuticals, the drug company said June 21.

The dispatch comes just days after a phony release was issued under General Mills’ moniker through PR Newswire announcing an apocryphal Obama administration probe of the company.

The June 18 news release, falsely identified as originating from Cambridge, Mass.-based Javelin and dispatched by an unidentified third party, was titled “US Supreme Court split – rules in favor of Big Pharma.” It said a 5-4 Supreme Court decision ruled Javelin's acute pain products had been lawfully produced and marketed. The company said its content was false.

Rick Pierce, VP of investor relations for Javelin who was cited as the contact for the fake release, said the company quickly saw the hoax release and notified Business Wire, which issued a retraction the following morning at 7:45 a.m. The original fake release was issued at 11:19 p.m. the night before.

“Javelin has confirmed that Javelin’s electronic mail system was not used for the hoax and was not compromised,” said Pierce. “Law enforcement authorities have been contacted. Similar incidents involving at least two other companies and a different news release service occurred last week.”

It’s unclear what company was involved in a third instance Pierce referenced in his statement. PR Newswire declined to comment beyond its statement to this website following the General Mills incident.

BW said said the fake release is now the subject of a federal criminal investigation related to stolen identity and fraud. The company said in the wake of the incident, it will no longer accept client releases submitted via email, effective immediately.

CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz said the elimination of email was scheduled to be part of a planned security upgrade in August.

All releases must now be submitted via the company's "BW Connect" platform, which BW said has been operational since 1998 without any breaches or incidents.

"Business Wire on rare occasions accepted e-mails as an accommodation to clients," said Tamraz. "Based on this weekend's events, we have put an immediate end to this practice.

BW transmits more than 250,000 press releases annually.

"On Friday evening, June 18, Business Wire transmitted a press release for Javelin Pharmaceuticals that we have since learned was fraudulent," said Neil Hershberg, senior VP of global media at BW. "The release was not issued or authorized by Javelin Pharmaceuticals. This is a case of stolen identity and is being treated as a criminal investigation."

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune said June 18 that it received an email from the purported perpetrator of the General Mills hoax. The person identified himself as Matt Reed and answered the same phone number that was given on the fake news release.

“It’s not to manipulate stock prices, but to serve to discredit Obama," Reed told the newspaper. “General Mills was not targeted specifically for any particular reason. They were just used as a vehicle for the press release.”