Pharmaceutical Giant Novartis Facing Lawsuit Over Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Their Drugs

(UR) Manhattan, NY — On March 25, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney filed a motion
requesting Novartis AG — a multinational pharmaceutical corporation
based in Switzerland — hand over records on roughly 80,000 of what the
government claims are “sham” events.

Novartis AG and the Southern District of New York — which oversees Wall Street — are currently engaged in a whistleblower lawsuit.
The U.S. alleges the Swiss pharmaceutical company has been wining and
dining doctors at phony speaking events as a form of kickback for over a
decade.

Last year, Novartis settled
a separate suit with the U.S. In that case, filed in 2013, the
government accused the company of sending patients to “specialty
pharmacies” who, in exchange for rebates, would recommend Novartis drugs
to customers.

Then, claimed the government, these specialty pharmacies submitted thousands of what Bloomberg called “fraud-tainted reimbursement claims” to Medicare and Medicaid — to the tune of half a billion dollars.

“Novartis corrupted the prescription drug dispensing process,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, in a statement back in 2013. “For
its investment, Novartis reaped dramatically increased profits on these
drugs, and Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs
were left holding the bag.”

Between the individual fines on each “fraud-tainted” claim and the state seeking triple damages, the U.S. originally sought $3.3 billion from Novartis. That case settled in November of 2015, with the corporation agreeing to pay $390 million.

But with Manhattan now asking for files on 80,000 events, it seems the U.S. is anything but finished with Novartis.