Celgene Settles Whistleblower Suit for $280 Million

Late July 2017, Celgene Corp., a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, agreed to pay $280 million to settle fraud allegations related to the promotion of two cancer treatment drugs for uses not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The settlement resolves allegations brought in a “whistleblower” lawsuit that Celgene promoted two cancer drugs – Thalomid and Revlimid – for uses that were not approved by the FDA and not covered by federal health care programs. The allegations included the use of false and misleading statements about the drugs, and paying kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe the drugs. The lawsuit also alleged that Celgene violated the laws of 28 states and the District of Columbia by submitting fraudulent claims to state health care programs, including California’s Medi-Cal program. The whistleblower lawsuit was filed in United States District Court by Beverly Brown, who was employed as a sales manager by Celgene, under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act and similar laws of the District of Columbia and the 28 states included in the lawsuit. Ms. Brown alleged that her supervisors at Celgene instructed her and other sales employees to promote to doctors various off-label uses of the drugs, and that she was rewarded for it in her compensation. The lawsuit alleged the marketing activities caused doctors to write prescriptions for the drugs that government health programs such as Medicare shoul...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs