A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc who is accused of defrauding Medicare and other government healthcare programs and promoting uses of its drugs and endangering patients' health.
The settlement of $95 million settlement will be distributed as follows; the federal government will obtain $78,455,048 (of which the whistleblower will receive over 21%), and state Medicaid programs will obtain $16,544,952.
Filed in 2005, the whistleblower complaint alleged off-label marketing of four drugs: Aggrenox, Atrovent, Combivent and Micardis. The government's allegations specifically were that Boehringer promoted Aggrenox for certain cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and peripheral vascular disease; that Combivent was marketed for use prior to another bronchodilator in treating COPD; and that Micardis was marketed for treatment of early diabetic kidney disease. The uses were not for medically accepted indications and were not covered by federal health care programs.
