(Reuters)—Drugmaker Pfizer Inc on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Johnson and Johnson, saying its rival’s contracts with health insurers for blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug, Remicade, were anticompetitive and blocked sales of Pfizer’s new biosimilar. Pfizer said in the suit that Johnson and Johnson is offering discounts on its Remicade treatment in exchange for essentially excluding…
Arizona Accuses Insys of Fraudulent Opioid Marketing Scheme
(Reuters)—Arizona’s attorney general sued Insys Therapeutics Inc on Thursday, accusing the drugmaker of engaging in a fraudulent marketing scheme aimed at increasing sales of a fentanyl-based cancer pain medicine. The lawsuit by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix comes during a series of federal and state investigations centered on…
New Hampshire Sues Purdue Pharma over Opioid Marketing
(Reuters)—New Hampshire sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP on Tuesday, joining several state and local governments in accusing the drugmaker of engaging in deceptive marketing practices that have helped fuel a national opioid addiction epidemic. The lawsuit filed in Merrimack County Superior Court claimed that Purdue Pharma significantly downplayed the risk of addiction posed by…
Generic Drug Group Sues to Block Maryland Price-Gouging Law
(Reuters)—The main U.S. trade group for generic pharmaceutical companies filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block a recently adopted Maryland law that lets the state attorney general sue generic drugmakers that sharply raise prices. The Association for Accessible Medicines filed the lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore to seek an injunction that would block…
U.S. Accuses UnitedHealth of Medicare Advantage Fraud
(Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has accused UnitedHealth Group Inc. of obtaining inflated payments from the government based on inaccurate information about the health status of patients enrolled in its largest Medicare Advantage Plan.1 The complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, came after the DOJ earlier this year intervened in two…
FDA Drug Labeling, Approval Process Help Minimize Lawsuits Against Pharmaceutical Companies
Like many people, I am up early and in the gym most days. Although I don’t seem to get anywhere new on the stationary bicycle or the elliptical machine, I do get to keep up with the pundits on the early morning talk shows. In contrast to the television series I binge on later in…
Maryland Lawmakers Approve Bill to Fight Drug Price-Gouging
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Maryland lawmakers have passed a first-in-the-nation measure that lets the state attorney general sue generic drugmakers that sharply raise prices in a move aimed at fighting what legislators call “price-gouging.” The bill overwhelmingly was approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature on Monday and hailed by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh as a way to check…
UnitedHealth Sued by U.S. Over Medicare Charges
(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group Inc. that claims the country’s largest health insurer and its units and affiliates overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars, a law firm representing the whistleblower said on Thursday. “We reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest…
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Dispute Over Biologic Drug Sales
NEW YORK (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a dispute over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval to begin selling them. The justices will take up an appeal by Novartis AG of a 2015 federal appeals court decision that prevented the…
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Biologic Drug Patent Fight
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval before bringing them to the market. The justices opted not to take up Apotex Inc.’s appeal of a July federal appeals court ruling that could…