The agreement in principle reached between Pfizer, Inc. and the Department of Justice has been finalized. The deal includes $784.6 million in fines, but no provisions for Corporate Integrity Agreement updates. This article goes through the case, the settlement, and what it means for the future.
Our readers may remember the “agreement in principle” reached between Pfizer, Inc. and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to settle the qui tam case with Wyeth, LLC. That agreement was recently made official by the parties, with the settlement being signed, sealed, and delivered on April 27, 2016.
As a refresher, allegations were made by Lauren Kieff, a former hospital sales representative for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, and William St. John LaCorte, a physician, that Wyeth engaged in healthcare fraud from 2001 to 2006. These allegations covered two Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs), both commonly used to treat acid reflux disease, Protonix Oral, and Protonix I.V. Shortly after coming to market, Protonix I.V. was not selling as well as Wyeth had hoped. Allegedly, Wyeth sought to induce hospitals to buy and use the drugs in such a manner that when patients were discharged from the hospital on Protonix Oral, they were more likely to stay on the medication for extended periods of time, instead of switching to competing PPIs. After being discharged from the hospital, payers (including Medicaid) would pay almost full price for the drugs.
Read Full Article in the July 2016 Issue of Life Science Compliance Update