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Judge Dismisses State Claims in PharMerica False Claims Act Lawsuit

May 3, 2018

A Boston judge dismissed a lawsuit against PharMerica that accused the pharmacy provider of accepting kickbacks and violating the False Claims Act in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas.

Two whistleblowers brought the action against the company in 2007  — on behalf of the U.S., 27 states,  two cities and several state and local jurisdictions — accusing PharMerica of conspiring with drugmaker Organon to file hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid drug reimbursement claims in exchange for kickbacks.

In 2012, Judge Rya Zobel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed all federal and local claims and 18 state claims, and the parties later voluntarily dismissed every remaining state claim except those in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas.

In a ruling this week, Zobel dismissed the remaining claims, saying they did not meet the threshold for whistleblower lawsuits as they cited third-party sources.

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