Pharma Fraud

February 21, 2014

Endo Pharmaceuticals and its parent Endo Health Solutions agreed to pay $192.7M to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from Endo’s marketing of the prescription drug Lidoderm for uses not approved as safe and effective by the FDA. The allegations were first raised in three qui tam lawsuits filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. DOJ

January 24, 2014

Tennessee Orthopedic Clinics and Appalachian Orthopedic Clinics agreed to pay a combined $1.85M to resolve state and federal False Claims Act allegations that they knowingly billed state and federal health care programs for reimported osteoarthritis medications. The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. DOJ

December 27, 2013

Abbott Labs agreed to pay $5.5M to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce doctors to use the company’s vascular products. The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.DOJ

December 2, 2013

Caremark agreed to pay $4.25M to settle allegations that it knowingly failed to reimburse Medicaid for prescription drug costs paid on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries, who also were eligible for drug benefits under Caremark-administered private health plans. The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. DOJ

November 4, 2013

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay more than $2.2B to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from allegations relating to the prescription drugs Risperdal, Invega and Natrecor, including promotion for uses not approved as safe and effective by the FDA and payment of kickbacks to physicians and to the nation’s largest long-term care pharmacy provider. The global resolution is one of the largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history, including criminal fines and forfeiture totaling $485M and civil settlements with the federal government and states totaling $1.72B. The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. DOJ

January 20, 2016

Pennsylvania announced a $450,000 consumer protection settlement with CVS Pharmacy, L.L.C. The settlement follows allegations the company violated a 2010 agreement in which it agreed to address concerns related to the sale of expired over the counter drugs, infant formula and dairy products. Agents allegedly reported finding expired products, including infant formula and drugs made for children, at five of the six CVS stores they visited. CVS employees in two cases also allegedly bypassed a register prompt that was designed to prohibit the sale of expired products. PA

January 19, 2016

New Jersey will receive a total of $2.7 million as a result of its participation in a global settlement with Qualitest Pharmaceuticals Inc. that resolves civil allegations the company mislabeled its multivitamin-with-fluoride tablets to indicate they were richer in fluoride than they actually were. Qualitest was the subject of a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2013 by a Florida dentist who alleged that it unlawfully represented its multivitamin tablets as containing levels of fluoride recommended by the American Dental Association (ADA) when they did not. NJ

December 4, 2015

The New York Attorney General announced the arrest of two individuals for allegedly defrauding the state of more than $3 million. The indictment alleges that the individuals and related companies paid patients not to fill their HIV prescriptions and to forego receiving life-saving medications in return for side payments, as well as with dispensing to patients “diverted” medications obtained from unlicensed vendors. The parties then submitted false claims to Medicaid and the state AIDS Drugs Assistance Program (ADAP), claiming to have dispensed the medications to patients in accordance with state and federal law. NY