Celgene Settles Cancer Drug Whistleblower Suit

Celgene Corporation has settled a whistleblower lawsuit for $280 million, alleging that the pharmaceutical company committed fraud promoting Thalomid, a cancer drug allegedly promoted for uses not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The settlement will be broken up between the United States and twenty-eight states and Washington, D.C. California will receive the largest state sum, $4.7 million. The payment is equivalent to about two weeks’ worth of sales of Revlimid, which generated $6.97 billion in revenue for Celgene last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The settlement, initiated by a suit filed by a sales manager with Celgene, Beverly Brown, resolved allegations that Celgene promoted Thalomid and Revlimid – both cancer drugs – for uses that were not approved by the FDA and were not covered by federal healthcare programs. According to the lawsuit, Brown was officially an "immunology specialist," trained by Celgene to promote Thalomid and Revlimid drugs for cancer treatments that had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Brown, who worked at Celgene for a decade, alleged the company paid doctors and hired ghostwriters to tout uses for Thalomid beyond the product’s approval, including treating blood cancer, years before it was authorized by regulators. Brown said the company used similar tactics to promote Thalomid’s successor, Revlimid. Thalomid, a drug prescribed for morning sickness in t...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs