Salix Pharmaceuticals Settles False Claims for $54M; Whistleblower Award TBD
Salix Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $54 million to settle allegations that the company violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by using “speaker programs” as kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Salix drugs and medical devices, which were then reimbursed by federal health care programs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York announced earlier this month.
The federal government alleges that many of SALIX’s speaker programs for Xifaxan, Apriso, Relistor, MoviPrep, OsmoPrep, Solesta, and Deflux were nothing more than social events at which SALIX wined and dined doctors to induce them to write prescriptions for these products. These speaker programs included both in-person events (at which both the speaker and the attendees were present in person and the speaker was paid to provide an educational talk on a Covered Product to the attendees using a slide presentation), as well as pre-recorded events (at which a SALIX employee was supposed to use a laptop or other device to play for the attendees a pre-recorded video of a doctor delivering a slide presentation, and then call the paid speaker, who was to be available to answer any questions by telephone).
The speaker programs, which were typically held in restaurants, were supposed to be educational in nature and the cost of the meal was supposed to be modest. But in practice, SALIX held many speaker programs that were primarily social in nature, including events where it repeatedly invited the same doctors, who frequently were from the same practice or otherwise knew each other, to attend the same exact program on the same exact topic. With respect to the pre-recorded programs – which SALIX personnel internally referred to as “doc-in-the-box programs” – the pre-recorded video frequently was not played or was intentionally played in a manner so it could be ignored. SALIX also held many speaker programs at very expensive, high-end restaurants.
The doctors whom SALIX paid to be speakers and whom SALIX invited to its events were often the high prescribers of its products or were viewed as having the potential to be high prescribers. Many of these doctors increased their prescription-writing for the Covered Products after becoming speakers and/or repeatedly attending sham speaker programs. During the Covered Period, SALIX spent approximately $25 million on speaker payments and meals.
In connection with the filing of the lawsuit and settlement, the Government joined two private whistleblower lawsuits that had previously been filed under seal pursuant to the False Claims Act.
The False Claims Act allows private parties with knowledge of fraud against the government to file a whistleblower lawsuit, or a qui tam lawsuit, on behalf of the federal government. The government may elect to intervene, as it has elected to do here. The whistleblower is entitled to up to 30 percent of the recovery. The whistleblower award has not been determined in this case.
The Chanler Group, in association with the Hirst Law Group, represents whistleblowers who take action under the False Claims Act to report fraud committed against the federal and state governments. We have years of experience representing whistleblower clients who expose every kind of fraud against the government, including health care fraud, contract fraud, and tax fraud. Read more about our expertise in False Claims Act cases and how you can take action.