- Texas AG Ken Paxton has sued pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly for allegedly bribing and illegally inducing medical providers to prescribe and continue prescribing several Lilly drugs—including GLP-1 medications Mounjaro and Zepbound—in violation of the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.
- According to the complaint, Eli Lilly offered improper incentives to medical providers in Texas—such as “free nurses” and reimbursement support services—in an effort to induce them to prescribe and maintain prescriptions for its drugs over competitors. The lawsuit claims that this conduct impacted the Texas Medicaid Program, which covered many of the prescriptions and, as a result, paid out unauthorized claims.
- The lawsuit seeks recovery of all Medicaid payments related to the allegedly unlawful conduct, civil penalties, injunctive relief, and fees and costs, among other forms of relief.
- We have previously reported on other state AG efforts to address the use of improper incentives in pharmaceutical marketing, including a $202 million bipartisan AG settlement resolving allegations that a pharmaceutical company ran an illegal kickback scheme to boost sales of its medications.