In its lawsuit, the government claims Novartis organized “sham” speaker events, where there was very little or no discussion of its drugs. Some of the speaker events were held at expensive restaurants and fishing venues.
The lawsuit provided several examples of the speaker events in question, including a dinner at Smith & Wollensky in Washington, D.C. in 2005, where the company spent $672 on each of the three people in attendance, according to the report.
As a result of the kickbacks, the lawsuit alleged, Medicare and Medicaid paid millions of dollars in reimbursements based on fraudulent insurance claims that were submitted for various Novartis drugs between 2002 and 2011.
Novartis has denied the allegations contained in the government’s lawsuit and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which a federal judge denied.
The lawsuit was originally filed under the qui tam, or whistle-blower, provision of the False Claims Act by a former Novartis sales representative, according to the report.
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