Personal Injury Law

Drug Manufacturer Accused Of Fraud Against United States

The United States Department of Justice and 16 states have joined two whistleblower lawsuits alleging that drug manufacturer Wyeth defrauded the government by offering discounts to hospitals on two of its drugs that it didn't offer to Medicaid.

Whistleblower lawsuits are lawsuits brought by private citizens alleging fraud against the government. If the Department of Justice determines that the lawsuit has merit, it can chose to intervene in the case. Finch McCranie LLP is a national leader in the filing of Whistleblower claims to recover money on behalf of the United States taxpayers. Our Whistleblower practice is more fully described in our Whistleblower blog.

The lawsuits, filed in federal District Court in Massachusetts, allege that Wyeth avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates to state Medicaid programs for its Protonix Oral and Protonix IV acid-reflux drugs. Wyeth sold $394 million of the drugs in 2008, but they brought in close to $2 billion a year in revenue before generic competition threatened them.

The Justice Department and the states, in joining the lawsuits, said Wyeth didn?t pay hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates even though it was required to grant the Medicaid program the same discount or ?best price? it offered to hospitals. The federal-state Medicaid progra, funded by taxpayer dollars, provides health care to the poor.
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Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).