False Claims Act Update & Alert
Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG April 26, 2005
		Sign Up for this FREE Newsletter n TAF Home Page n About TAF-EF n The False Claims Act n Previous Newsletters n Email editor Please take a moment to forward this FREE electronic newsletter to others that might be interested!        "Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it." - Samuel Johnson
			A Thirteen Dollar Bill? Every dollar invested by the U.S. Government in investigation and prosecution of federal health care fraud through the False Claims Act returns $13 back to the American people. To read the press release and full TAF Education Fund study authored by economist Jack Meyer >> Click here
			$725 Million Serono Settlement? Serono -- Europe's biggest biotechnology company -- has set aside $725 million in expectation of settling investigations involving the AIDS drug Serostim.  Serono appears to be under investigation for numerous violations concerning the marketing of the drug which sold for $21,000 for a 12-week therapeutic course.  The company reports that the $725 million set aside is expected to pay costs associated with various state investigations, as well as various federal probes.  >> For more information
			Fraud is a War on the Poor From an April 17th editorial in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The real Medicaid cheats are pharmaceutical companies: Schering-Plough, Bayer, Parke-Davis, Abbott Labs, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer Inc.  Of the $29 million in Medicaid provider fraud recovered by Missouri since 2002 ... $26 million (90 percent) came from those six drug companies. If ... the Legislature were tough on Medicaid fraud, they'd pass a "whistle-blower" law that allows an employee to collect if he reports fraudulent company practices."  >> For more information
			Big Cases In the Wings In addition to the $725 million reserve recently announced by Serono, King Pharmaceutical has set aside $135 million for settlement of "best price" violations, and Beth Israel Hospital is involved in a case expected to top $58 million.  A bench trial involving Pratt & Whitney awaits final judgment with the Government claiming single damages of $200 million, which could be tripled under the FCA.  Tenet Healthcare continues to negotiate a global settlement in excess of $1 billion.  See TAF web site for more information.
			Drug Lobbyists Thick as Ticks USA Today's Jim Drinkard reports that:  "Since 1998, drug companies have spent $758 million on lobbying — more than any other industry. In Washington, the industry has 1,274 lobbyists — more than two for every member of Congress.  'They are powerful,' says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. 'You can hardly swing a cat by the tail in that town without hitting a pharmaceutical lobbyist.'"  >> To read more
			Casper the Friendly Ghost? In the False Claims Act case against Pfizer involving the off-label marketing of Neurontin, one of the charges was that the company paid public relations firms to ghost scientific papers.  Following the $430 million Pfizer settlement, other drug companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca were quick to deny they had ever engaged in a similar practice.  Adriane Fugh-Berman, associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University's School of Medicine, says he knows better.  >> To read more