Qui Tam

Eli Lilly May Spent $2 Billion More for Fraud on State Governments--But Again, Where is Virginia's Share?

By Zachary A. Kitts

Eli Lilly & Co., after agreeing to pay more than $2.6 billion to settle claims by the federal government and an assortment of state governments over the marketing of its anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa, still faces lawsuits that might cost the company an additional $2 billion.

That is because only certain states settled in the original settlement agreement, announced last week.  There are currently 12 state suits pending, and additional states, such as Virginia, could bring suit any time to reclaim the money fraudulently obtained from our Medicaid coffers. 

The states claim Lilly withheld information about the side effects of Zyprexa, such as diabetes, and encouraged sales of the drug for unapproved, or off-label, purposes. The states who have brought claims have asked for damages and fines for violation of laws against deceptive practices and false claims.

I suppose I will leave it to Attorney General Bob McDonnell to explain why Virginia has not filed its own lawsuit to claim its share--General McDonnell has done a very good job of making sure Virginia reclaims its money for the most part, so I am sure it is just a matter of time.

The take away message is this--big pharmaceutical companies have been gorging themselves on our state and federal tax dollars for many years, and they are just now starting to pay the piper.  The battleground is shifting to state governments--specifically, to the various state Attorney Generals who have the authority to prosecute false claims made to the Medicaid programs of each state.  

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why this blog sometimes discusses politics and specifically the 2009 Virginia Attorney General race.  In order to maximize our state expenditures, we need our next Attorney General to get tough with "big pharma"--i.e., the pharmaceutical manufacturers.  

That is not the only people he needs to get tough with--there are a variety of unsavory characters gorging themselves on our state tax dollars, but big pharma is without a doubt the largest. 
 

Full post as published by Virginia Qui Tam Law on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).