Three months ago, pharmaceutical maker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $750 million to resolve a U.S. government false-claims lawsuit over charges that the company knowingly manufactured and sold adulterated drugs. The affected medications involved in the suit included the heavily prescribed antidepressant, Paxil and Avandia, a medication taken for type II diabetes.

This week, the whistleblower responsible for bringing to light the disturbing problems at a Glaxo plant, that resulted in the false-claims lawsuit, spoke out for the first time on 60 minutes. In her interview, the former Glaxo global quality assurance manager, , made public the unconcealed disregard shown by the company for the safety and quality of the products they manufacture.

Cheryl Eckard first learned of issues when she was sent to evaluate a Glaxo factory in Cidra, Puerto Rico and noted numerous production problems causing some drugs to become tainted, mislabeled, or incorrectly dosed. Eckard told 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley “All the systems were in disrepair, the facility was in poor condition, the equipment was in disrepair, the processes were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career.”

Eckard alleges that after eight months of reporting these issues with no company response, she produced a chart for Glaxo executives showing nine problem areas at the Cidra plant. The chart included allegations that production issues at the plant were causing powerful drugs to be mixed together in the same bottles.

According to Eckard, her claims continued to be dismissed; and after a pharmacist reported a mix-up involving incorrectly labeled Paxil prescribed to an 8-year-old boy, the drug company filed a report with the FDA saying it was extremely unlikely that the drug mix-up occurred at Cidra. Cheryl Eckard was let go shortly after her letter to company executives detailing problems at Cidra. After Eckard was fired, she brought her complaints to the FDA.

In 2005, Cidra was raided and Federal investigators said that the conditions of the Glaxo factory were far from meeting public health standards. Cidra was shut down in 2009 and is no longer owned by GlaxoSmithKline.

Under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers like Eckard may be entitled to receive a portion of any money that the government recovers from the offenders. In order to receive a portion of the recovered money, the whistleblower must be the first to bring the case to the government’s attention, and must not publicize the claim until the DOJ decides to prosecute the claim. Cheryl Eckard received a record $96 million from the settlement.