Alan Goforth reports for BenefitPro that the Texas Attorney General sued Eli Lilly for bribing physicians to prescribe its most profitable drugs. Texas AG Ken Paxton calls the bribes “an illegal kickback scheme.”
Eli Lilly purportedly provided physicians with “free nurses” and other services in exchange for their prescribing its drugs. “Eli Lilly fraudulently sought to maximize profits at taxpayer expense and put corporate greed over people’s health. I will not stand by while corporations unlawfully manipulate our health care system to line their own pockets,” says Paxton.
Paxton calls out a wide range of drugs that Lilly allegedly paid physicians to prescribe. They include Mounjaro and Zepbound for weight loss, as well as Alimta, Basaglar, Ebglyss, Emgality, Forteo, Humalog, Humulin, Jaypirca, Retevmo, Rezvoglar, Taltz and Verzenio,.
If true, Eli Lilly violated the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.” Lilly denies the charges. It says that it has a duty to provide “basic product support relating to [patients’] medication.”
This is one of many cases against Eli Lilly in the last year alone. Paxton also sued Lilly for participation in a conspiracy to raise the price of insulin. In that case, ExpressScripts and CVS Pharmacy are also defendants.
Since 2000, Eli Lilly has paid nearly $3 billion in penalties on a range of offenses, according to Violation Tracker. Here are the top five:
| off-label or unapproved promotion of medical products | $1,608,100,000 | 9 |
| drug or medical equipment safety violation | $1,190,000,000 | 2 |
| Foreign Corrupt Practices Act | $29,398,734 | 1 |
| False Claims Act and related | $1,650,000 | 1 |
| environmental violation | $1,492,467 | 8 |
Here’s more from Just Care:
- A small group of drugs make up most of Medicare drug costs
- Trump tax bill drives up Medicare drug costs
- Six tips for keeping your drug costs down if you have Medicare
- Case study: Costco saves one couple hundreds of dollars over Medicare Part D
- Medicare Part D drug costs: What to expect in 2025
