Berg & Androphy: PharMerica Pays $4.9M to End False Claims Act Suit Alleging Kickbacks and Medicaid Fraud

HOUSTON, Jan. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PharMerica Corporation has agreed to pay $4.9 million to resolve a False Claims Act suit alleging that it took kickbacks from a drug maker to promote two antidepressants, according to Berg & Androphy.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit against the pharmacy operator filed in 2007 by two former employees of drug maker Organon USA Inc. on behalf of the federal government and various states.

The lawsuit claimed that from 1999 to 2005, PharMerica sought and received kickbacks from Organon in the form of discounts in exchange for promoting the antidepressants Remeron and Remeron SolTab. Another pharmacy provider, Omnicare, settled for $23 million in 2017, and drug maker Organon settled for $31 million in 2014. The settlement with PharMerica marks the end of roughly fourteen years of litigation.

The settlement is neither an admission of liability by PharMerica nor a concession by the relators that their claims were not well founded.

The relators were represented by Joel Androphy and Janis Gorton of Berg & Androphy. PharMerica was represented by Michael Manthei, James D. Smeallie, and Benjamin McGovern of Holland & Knight.

Although the United States declined to intervene in the matter, it remained a valuable asset for the duration of the case. The United States was represented by Laurie Oberembt, Senior Trial Counsel with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division.

The case is United States ex rel. James Banigan, et al. v. Organon USA Inc., et al., case number 1:07-cv-12153, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Contact: Joel Androphy and Janis Gorton, Berg & Androphy, 713.529.5622.

SOURCE Berg & Androphy

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