Big Pharma Company Allegedly Paid Docs To Prescribe Opioid

NEWARK, NJ — A pharmaceutical corporation has agreed to pay more than $7.55 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe its fentanyl-based drug, Abstral, an opioid with strong potential for abuse, federal authorities from New Jersey announced Friday.

According to prosecutors, the allegations against California-based Galena Biopharma Inc. arose from a whistleblower suit filed under the False Claims Act.

The settlement follows an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, prosecutors said.

“The conduct alleged by the government and resolved by today’s settlement was egregious because it incentivized doctors to over-prescribe highly addictive opioids,” Acting U.S. William Attorney Fitzpatrick said.

Galena Biopharma states on its website that Abstral is “a treatment option for inadequately controlled breakthrough cancer pain” involving patients who have developed a tolerance to opioid therapy. The drug carries a risk of “respiratory depression, medication errors and abuse potential.”

• See related article: The Addiction Industry: Scientist Says Opioid Treatment Needs To Change

According to prosecutors:

“The United States contends that Galena Biopharma paid multiple types of kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe Abstral, including providing more than 85 free meals to doctors and staff from a single, high-prescribing practice; paying doctors $5,000 honoraria, and speakers $6,000, plus expenses, to attend an “advisory board” that was partly planned, and was attended by, Galena sales team members; and paying approximately $92,000 to a physician-owned pharmacy under a performance-based rebate agreement to induce the owners to prescribe Abstral.”

Prosecutors continued:

“The United States also contends that Galena paid doctors to refer patients to the company’s RELIEF patient registry study, which was nominally designed to collect data on patient experiences with Abstral, but acted as a means to induce the doctors to prescribe Abstral. Galena Biopharma sold Abstral in November 2015 after booking net losses on Abstral in each year that it owned the drug, beginning in June 2013. During that period, Medicare, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits program paid $13.6 million for Abstral prescriptions; the settlement resolves Galena’s civil liability for causing false claims to be submitted to these programs. Galena Biopharma has not marketed any pharmaceutical drug since the end of 2015. It currently has a market capitalization of roughly $21 million.”

Prosecutors said that the company cooperated with the government’s investigation of certain individuals in connection with the conduct that is the subject of Friday’s settlement agreement and also cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama’s investigation that led to the February 2017 conviction of two doctors, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, following a jury trial, of, among other counts, offenses relating to their prescriptions of Abstral.

The matter remains under seal as to allegations against entities other than Galena, prosecutors said.

• See related article: 20 NJ Towns With The Most Heroin And Opiate Abuse

Also See: These Drugs Just Surpassed Heroin As The Deadliest Opioids In The US

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