September 30, 2010 -- For the third time in one month, the national whistleblower law firm of Nolan & Auerbach, P.A. announces another substantial whistleblower recovery on behalf of their clients. Collectively, the cases have returned in excess of $1.3 billion to the US Treasury to reimburse America's health care programs. Earlier this month, the firm represented two whistleblowers in a $600 million overall settlement with Allergan, Inc. and one whistleblower in the $300 million overall settlement with Forest Laboratories, Inc. and its subsidiary Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Today marks the unsealing of its clients' cases against pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, which has agreed to pay $237.5 million to resolve civil allegations that it unlawfully promoted its drug Trileptal for unapproved uses and that it paid illegal kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe other of the company's drugs: Diovan, Exforge and Tekturna. In addition, the company has agreed to pay a $185 million criminal fine and to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. Nolan & Auerbach, P.A. represented three of the key whistleblowers in this case, which was brought under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act. This settlement also resolves two other qui tam actions raising similar allegations.
In the case concerning Trileptal, the whistleblowers alleged that Novartis implemented a sophisticated marketing plan with the purpose of inducing physicians to prescribe Trileptal for various off-label uses which were neither FDA-approved nor demonstrated to be safe and effective. According to the complaint, Novartis knew when it initiated this illegal marketing scheme that there was little credible scientific basis to justify its assertion that Trileptal was safe and effective for these off-label uses.
The whistleblowers also alleged that Novartis regularly provided illegal kickbacks to physicians who prescribed Trileptal for off-label uses. These alleged business practices caused federal and state government health care programs to pay millions of dollars for prescriptions which were ineligible for payment.
"...algunos médicos a los que invitábamos como oradores lo único que hacían era leer un guión previamente preparado, algunos otros fueron invitados como oradores pese a tener un pobre nivel de inglés, tanto los ponentes como los médicos asistentes eran pagados por acudir a este tipo de reuniones, si no prescribían nuestros productos no se les pagaba".
"Una de las cosas que realmente me molestaba era el despilfarro de dinero. Eso fue algo gradual. Se pagaban honorarios a los médicos, sabía cuánto costaba realizar este tipo de reuniones ¿y para qué? ¿para superar a otras compañías en número de eventos? Sin saber si esto significaba ganar pacientes para Tekturna, ¿para tratar de convencer a los médicos de que recetaran Tekturna en vez de un IECA genérico que podías conseguir por 10$ en Walmart?. Malgastábamos cientos y cientos de miles de dólares que podrían haberse invertido en cosas mejores, se podrían haber invertido en programas de acceso a pacientes menos afortunados a los medicamentos? "
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