The state is receiving $578,295 from a settlement with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to settle allegations that it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted one of its drugs, Trileptal, and “engaged in unlawful kickback schemes” to induce doctors to prescribe that drug as well as five others, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced Friday.
Lynch said in a news release that his office will forward $244,391 of that money to the state Department of Human Services, which administers Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income Americans and certain people with disabilities. The balance of the settlement allocated to Rhode Island represents the federal portion of the Medicaid recovery and will go to the U.S. Department of Human Services.
“This is yet another in a long line of settlements with pharmaceutical companies that are boosting their profits at the expense of a program designed to assist the most vulnerable and needy Americans,” said Lynch. “While the circumstances vary, sheer greed is a common denominator in the exploitation of Medicaid by pharmaceutical manufacturers.”
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. subsidiary of Novartis AG, the Swiss drugmaker, announced on Sept. 30 that it had reached a $422.5-million settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that was conducting both criminal and civil investigations of the company’s off-label promotion of Trileptal, an anti-epileptic drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients who suffer seizures. A government investigation found that Novartis was inducing psychiatrists and other health-care providers to prescribe Trileptal for unapproved uses such as the treatment of bipolar disorder and neuropathic pain and that it also made illegal payments to doctors so that they’d promote and prescribe Trileptal.
The U.S. Attorney’s office also alleged that the company had engaged in civil wrongdoing by providing illegal payments through mechanisms such as payments for speaker programs, advisory boards and gifts, including entertainment and travel and meals to physicians to induce them to promote and prescribe the drugs Diovan, Zelnorm, Sandostatin, Exforge and Tekturna.
The news release put out by Novartis said it had agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of misbranding, pay a $185-million fine in connection with promoting uses of Trileptal that were not approved in this country and to pay $237.5 million to resolve the civil allegations involving all six drugs.
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