Cheryl Eckard, the whistleblower whose lawsuit led to this week's announcement that GlaxoSmithKline will pay a $750 million settlement, once worked for the drug maker in Research Triangle Park.

GSK is based in London, but employs about 5,000 people in the Triangle, mostly at its North American headquarters in RTP.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Eckard is originally from North Carolina and was a manager of global quality assurance in RTP when GSK sent her to a problematic drug factory in Cidra, Puerto Rico. When she arrived there in 2002, she found a long list of issues that were leading to mix-ups with drugs such as the antidepressant Paxil.