A newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit accuses Novartis and Genentech of being at the center of a decades-long kickback scheme to promote their immunology med Xolair across dozens of states.
Whistleblowers represented by Pharma Integrity LLC filed the suit against a handful of named pharma companies including Novartis, Genentech, Sanofi, Regeneron, AstraZeneca, Amgen and GSK in January on behalf of 30 states and Washington, D.C. The lawsuit was unsealed earlier this month by U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Williams, as two states (Maryland and Florida) have now declined to intervene in the case, meaning that the seal on the filing can lift and be served to the pharma companies involved by July 20. The remaining state governments are “not intervening at this time,” according to the update.
According to the 143-page suit, Novartis and Genentech illegally boosted prescriptions of Xolair and later helped its “successor biologics” including Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, AZ’s Fasenra, Amgen and AZ’s Tezspire and Genentech’s Raptiva and Pulmozyme starting in 2003 through illegal kickbacks, off-label promotional messaging, false Medicare coverage instructions and other actions using several specialty pharmacies across the U.S. such as Walgreens, Express Scripts, CVS and others.
In exchange for the specialty pharmacies overriding codes, falsifying documentation and other illegal routes to accelerate Xolair claims, the pharmacies allegedly received office equipment and...
A newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit accuses Novartis and Genentech of being at the center of a decades-long kickback scheme to promote their immunology med Xolair across dozens of states. Whist...