A fourth patient charity agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims it enabled drugmakers to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients who used their drugs, STAT reported.
Three other patient charities have settled similar cases since last October, when federal authorities accused drugmakers and patient charities of creating programs to favor some drugs over lower-cost options to boost profits.
The U.S. Justice Department said the fourth charity, called Patient Services, created a fund for patients with a disease called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia after being asked to do so by Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, STAT reported. The fund was only supported by Aegerion and allowed the drugmaker to boost its sales.
The Patient Services case differs from the other three because the charity filed a lawsuit in 2018 accusing the government of inhibiting its free speech rights by limiting the information it was allowed to provide to donors.
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