The State of Texas has sued Eli Lilly, claiming that the pharma “offered illegal incentives” to healthcare providers, pushing them to prescribe blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.
In a prepared statement on Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that Lilly “compromised medical decision-making by engaging in an illegal kickback scheme.”
“Eli Lilly fraudulently sought to maximize profits at taxpayer expense and put corporate greed over people’s health,” Paxton added.
The 24-page complaint, filed in the District Court of Texas, claimed that Lilly ran two programs to incentivize providers to prescribe its products, allowing it to “compete in a marketplace saturated with medications that deliver—or claim to deliver—similar therapeutic results.”
The first scheme, which the lawsuit dubbed the “Free Nurse Program,” involved providing “free patient-care services” to providers, in order to nudge them into prescribing the company’s drugs. Under the second program, called the “Support Services Program,” Lilly offered assistance for reimbursement, the complaint claims. Aside from Zepbound and Mounjaro, the lawsuit also covers many other Lilly products, Including the breast cancer drug Verzenio, the leukemia pill Jaypirca and injectable insulin drugs Insulin Lispro and Lyumjev.
Source: Texas Accuses Lilly of ‘Bribing’ Prescribers To Push Mounjaro, Zepbound in New Suit / BioSpace