Drug maker AstraZeneca agrees to pay $110 million to settle Texas Medicaid fraud claims

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will pay $110 million to settle a pair of whistle-blower lawsuits accusing the company of falsely marketing two of its drugs to Texas Medicaid providers, including illegally promoting a powerful antipsychotic medicine for use by children.

The cases were filed in 2013 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which accused the United Kingdom-based drug maker of “off-label marketing” of Crestor, a cholesterol medicine, and Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug used to treat conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The state initially sought $5 billion in its lawsuit.

As far back as 2007, AstraZeneca allegedly marketed Seroquel to Texas Medicaid providers who primarily treated children at a time when the drug had not been approved as safe for patients under 18. That included hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments to two former state hospital doctors to influence the use of the drug, as well as misrepresenting the drug’s potency and side effects, according to the attorney general’s office.

AstraZeneca was also accused in a nationwide marketing fraud scheme involving the statin Crestor, which lowers cholesterol levels by blocking certain enzymes.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2018/08/08/drug-maker-astrazeneca-agrees-pay-110-million-settle-texas-medicaid-fraud-claims