News and Analysis
Judge Gabriel Sanchez, nominated by President Biden to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, wrote a unanimous opinion that reversed a lower court and allowed an investigator to go forward with a False Claims Act lawsuit that charged a large pharmaceutical company with defrauding the federal government. The August 2023 decision was in Silbersher v Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Inc.
Zachary Silbersher, an investigator and a lawyer, filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act (FCA) contending that Valeant Pharmaceuticals had defrauded and cost the federal government millions of dollars. Under the Act, private individuals can sue corporations or others for fraud on behalf of the government and can sometimes share in the damages awarded. SIlbersher maintained that Valeant had fraudulently obtained patents on an important anti-inflammatory drug and used the patents to “stifle competition” from generic drug makers. He also contended that Valeant defrauded the federal government by charging an “artificially inflated” price for the drug while falsely certifying that the price was fair and reasonable.
Under the FCA, however, claims generally cannot be brought based on public disclosures in court or administrative proceedings, in congressional or administrative hearings or reports, or in the news media. The district court ruled that this “public disclosure bar” applied in this case, and...
It’s starting to look like somebody’s got a serious vendetta against Future and will stop at nothing to try and destroy his brand and career because the math isn’t mathing and facts just aren’t li...