Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced another settlement in a Medicaid Rebate False Claims Act (FCA) case. In this case, United States ex rel. Streck v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Civil Action No. 2:13-CV-7547 (E.D. Pa) Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) agreed to pay $75 …
On December 19, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or the “Agency”) filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court seeking review of a ruling by the Seventh Circuit case FTC v. Credit Bureau Center, LLC. A detailed overview of the background …
In the August 21 split panel decision issued in Federal Trade Commission v. Credit Bureau Center LLC, the Seventh Circuit held that section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTCA”), 15 U.S.C. § 53(b), does not authorize an award of restitution. In overturning its …
Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Hi-Tech) and its President and Chief Operating Officer filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to enjoin FDA from continuing to seek removal of DMHA products from commerce through the issuance of warning letters and “pressure… to …
We have long posted about the government’s threats to hold individuals liable for actions taken on behalf of their companies, for example here, but these actions remain rare and typically are reserved for egregious, repeated, and intentional criminality. A recent indictment against two former executives, …
We previously posted about what the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (commonly referred to as the Farm Bill) did, and did not, do with respect to “hemp” and CBD products derived from hemp. In that post, we noted that the Farm Bill did not preempt …
In two unrelated cases, two U.S. Courts of Appeal affirmed FDC Act-related convictions earlier this week. In United States v. Patino, the Eighth Circuit held that it was not an abuse of discretion to allow the government to introduce, in connection with a 2016 prosecution …
A biotech company facing a complete response letter (CRL) action on its NDA/BLA has no greater goal than to quickly and fully understand the deficiencies that FDA has identified in the application. Such an understanding is critical to addressing the review division’s findings through additional …
In United States of America ex rel Streck v. Allergan Inc., a federal False Claims Act (FCA) case alleging that several pharmaceutical manufacturers knowingly calculated false Average Manufacturer Prices (AMPs) that affected their Medicaid rebate payments, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit …
On April 3, 2018, FDA announced that it had issued a mandatory recall order for all food products containing powdered kratom manufactured, processed, packed, or held by Triangle Pharmanaturals LLC (Triangle). FDA issued this order based on its finding that several Triangle products contained kratom …
Vape shops in several states have banded together in litigation challenging the constitutionality of FDA’s Deeming Rule (for background information on that regulation, see our prior posting here). Plaintiffs are pursuing the litigation simultaneously in several federal district courts – perhaps with the objective of …
Federal law continues to prohibit the possession, cultivation or distribution of marijuana and prohibits operating a business for these purposes. A number of states continue to follow Federal law and prohibit the use of marijuana under any circumstance, but a growing majority of other states …
Late last month, Judge Wolf, in the federal district court for the district of Massachusetts, dismissed a putative class action against a number of defendants based on impossibility preemption. The plaintiffs’ basic allegations were that the defendants, all of which manufactured or distributed prescription eye drops, …
FTC and FDA issued a blog posting co-authored by senior officials that encourages the public to report potentially violative dietary supplements to one or both agencies. The posting lists the following as circumstances that should prompt a report: “You bought a dietary supplement that didn’t work …
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in United Health Services v. United States ex rel. Escobar, we have seen a narrowing of situations in which courts will find liability under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). A district court in Pennsylvania provided yet another example of this …
