by bvernia | November 3rd, 2009
In an announcement November 3http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/November/09-civ-1186.html, DOJ and the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts said that it settled kickback allegations of Covington, Kentucky – based Omnicare, Inc. (a nursing home pharmacy company) and IVAX Pharmaceuticals, of Weston, Florida, which is now a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Omnicare will pay $98 million to resolve allegations relating to IVAX and to its receipt of kickbacks from Johnson & Johnson in exchange for agreeing to recommend that physicians prescribe Risperdal, an anti-psychotic. (J&J is currently facing lawsuits by ten states over its marketing of Risperdal.) The Government also alleged that Omnicare solicited and received a payment of $8 million from IVAX in exchange for agreeing to buy $50 million of that company’s drugs. IVAX will pay $14 million. Of the $112 million total, the US will receive $68.5 million; the states get $43.5 for losses to their Medicaid programs.
Both Omnicare and IVAX entered into Corporate Integrity Agreements with the OIG-HHS.
The US also announced it is intervening in a qui tam suit against two Atlanta-based nursing home chains, Mariner Health Care, Inc., and SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services, LLC, and their principals, for accepting kickbacks from Omnicare for contracting for pharmacy services.
