BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – The federal government says Teva Pharmaceuticals illegally paid patients’ co-pays for the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
The feds filed a lawsuit Aug. 18 against the company under the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute. When a Medicare patient purchased the drug, Teva had two foundations pay the co-pay, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks and a rise in the drug’s cost, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says Copaxone’s price rose at a rate more than 19 times the rate of inflation, and the Medicare program ended up paying more than it should have.
Teva paid the Chronic Disease Fund and The Assistance Fund more than $300 million to cover co-pay obligations of Medicare patients, the suit says.
“Teva used CDF and TAF as conduits: it paid the foundations with the intent and understanding that, in violation of the anti-kickback statute, they would use Teva’s money to cover the co=pays of patients taking Copaxone,” the suit says.
“Teva intended the payments to ensure that Copaxone patients never faced the steep prices that Teva charged for its drug, thus inducing the patients, including Medicare patients, to purchase the drug.
From 2006-15, the cost of a year’s worth of Copaxone went from $17,000 to more than $73,000, the feds say.