Omnicare is the nation's largest provider of pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services to nursing homes and it is paying over $124 million for offering improper financial incentives to skilled nursing homes in return for their selecting Omnicare to supply their drugs to elderly Medicare and Medicaid patients. The complaint alleged that Omnicare submitted false claims by...

Medicare paid American oncologists $128 million in 2012 to give their patients Procrit according to newly released data. The drug, approved in 1989 for anemia has been restricted for use as researchers learned around 2007, that it can speed tumor growth and hasten death of patients. Since 2007, the FDA began warning about risks...

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit accusingΠNovartis AG of civil fraud for having conducted two illegal kickback schemes to boost sales of drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid. The government is accusing Novartis of inducing 20 pharmacies to switch thousands of kidney transplant...

The makers of strong painkillers like OxyContin have created a "population of addicts" with a "campaign of deception" about the risks the drugs carry, two lawsuit charges. The cases were filed on behalf of the whole state. Orange and Santa Clara counties are suing five large makers of opium-like painkillers, accusing them...

A pharmacy owner bribed nursing home workers to return unused medications, then repackaged and resold them, according to allegations in a $2.2 million Medicare fraud case, state and federal authorities recently announced. Mona Patrice Carter, 47, pleaded guilty to the healthcare fraud charge in federal court, according to the Department of...

Insys Therapuetics has been issued a subpoena from the Office of Inspector General for documents concerning its sales and marketing practices. ΠThe company makes and sells a strong narcotic drug called Subsys, a form of Fentanyl which was approved by the FDA in 2012 for cancer patients. Sales of the drug, however, have jumped...

GlaxoSmithKline, one of the largest pharma companies in the world, is investigating whistleblower allegations that its Irag subsidiary may have hired government employed doctors and pharmacists in the country, as paid sales reps to boost profits from sales.

Prosecutors for Uncle Sam have charged that Swiss drug maker Novartis have paid massive kickbacks to 26,997 physicians including money, free dinners and entertainment to steer patients to Starlix and two of its hypertension pills, Lotrel and Valturna. Under the Stark Act, an Anti-kickback law, it is not legal for a drug company to pay...

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical and a subsidiary have agreed to pay $28 million to settle claims that they paid a Chicago psychiatrist to prescribe anti-psychotic medication to thousands of patients insured by the government. The agreement settles claims that North Wales, Penn.-based Teva and Weston, Fla.- based IVAX LLC "î both subsidiaries...

Pharma companies Endo Pharmaceuticals and Endo Health solutions will pay $192.7 million to resolve criminal and civil charges over their marketing of Lidoderm, a topical patch to relieve pain. One it is applied, Lidoderm causes a loss of feeling. It is often used with surgery in treatment of emergency heart rhythm problems. It was only...