In Budget Testimony, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Includes Health Care Fraud Among DOJ Priorities

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared Tuesday morning before members of the Appropriations Subcommittees to present the President’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget for the Department of Justice. Among key funding priorities, he noted the Department’s dedication “to good stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” and pointed to combatting health care fraud as an example of efficient use of Department resources. “The most recent projections show that...

May 4, 2017

A company that marketed itself as “the leader in home opiate detox since 2009” and its CEO have settled FTC charges that the withdrawal treatment claims for their “Withdrawal Ease” and “Recovery Ease” products were false or unsupported by scientific evidence. The court order settling the FTC’s charges bars Catlin Enterprises, Inc. and George Catlin, based in Austin, Texas, from making claims about opiate withdrawal, opiate dependency, or other health...

In Their Own Words -- Stevens

-- Proove Biosciences CEO Brian Meshkin is “in it for the money. He wanted to swab as many people as possible. He wanted people who had a cold to be swabbed for opioid risk.” Beth Stevens, a former Proove manager. Stat News

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- March 1, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team It’s easy money: Lab offers doctors up to $144,000 a year to push dubious genetic tests, employees say – Proove Biosciences allegedly offered doctors $30 for every patient they enrolled in a clinical trial, supposedly designed to help select the best pain medication for each patient. “Proove has grown rapidly by tapping into the public angst over surging opioid addiction. It is one of...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- January 25, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Attorney lodges first case ever to test whistleblower protections under Australia’s Corporations Act — Sally McDow, a lawyer and former senior compliance officer with Australia’s Origin Energy, alleges that Origin has serious compliance failures in its gas and oilfields, and victimizes and intimidates anyone who dares to speak out about them.  The case is expected to spotlight Australia’s existing whistleblower protections at a time when...

January 17, 2017

McKesson Corporation, one of the country’s largest distributors of pharmaceutical drugs, agreed to pay a record $150 million civil penalty for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act. The settlement requires McKesson to suspend sales of controlled substances from distribution centers in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan and Florida for several years and according to the government is among the most severe sanctions ever agreed to by a Drug Enforcement Administration registered...

November 22, 2016

CleanSlate Centers, Inc. and Total Wellness Centers, LLC (d/b/a CleanSlate) agreed to pay $750,000 to resolve allegations that the two companies, which together operate opioid addiction treatment centers in Massachusetts and other states, improperly prescribed buprenorphine (Suboxone®) for opioid addiction treatment and improperly billed Medicare in violation of both the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act.  DOJ (DMA)

November 21, 2016

Georgia 41 other states filed an amended antitrust lawsuit against the makers of Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opioid addiction, over allegations that the companies engaged in a scheme to block generic competitors and cause purchasers to pay artificially high prices. Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, now known as Indivior, is accused of conspiring with MonoSol Rx to switch Suboxone from a tablet version to a film (that dissolves in...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. China Vitamin C Price-Fixing Verdict Voided by U.S. Appeals Court.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday threw out a $147.8 million price-fixing verdict against two Chinese companies that were accused of conspiring to raise prices and lower supply of vitamin C sold to U.S. purchasers. ...

September 22, 2016

New York announced that, together with the Attorneys General of 34 other states and the District of Columbia, his office has filed a lawsuit against Indivior, the manufacturer of the branded drug Suboxone, and MonoSolRX, the company that licensed its patented sublingual film technology to Indivior. Suboxone is used to treat patients addicted to heroin and other drugs, including painkillers. The lawsuit alleges that Indivior (which was spun off from...