Court denies Teva's motion to dismiss Copaxone kickbacks case

• Published date: 12 September 2021

In the lawsuit, filed in August 2020 in the District Court in Boston, the US Department of Justice claims that Teva acted in breach of the False Claims Act between 2006 and 2015. According to the lawsuit, the company paid two supposedly independent charitable foundations more than $300 million in order to cover co-payments to Medicare by patients being treated with Copaxone.

The US Department of Justice alleged that Teva referred Copaxone patients to a pharmacy in Florida, Advanced Care Scripts, which arranged with the foundations that the money that Teva transferred to them would serve to cover the patients' co-payments for the drug. US federal law allows drug companies to make donations to independent foundations that offer assistance paying for drugs, but forbids companies to subsidize directly co-payments by patients who belong to Medicare.

Ultimately, Teva is accused of having conspired with the pharmacy to ensure that its donations matched the amount required to cover...