What do the FDA’s expanded ‘intended use’ regulations mean for safe-harbored communications about new uses?
In advance of their webinar this Thursday, October 7, Coleen Klasmeier and Jaime Jones consider some of the effects of the final rule.
FDA’s final rule to amend its medical product ‘intended use’ regulations has now been in effect since September 1. The changes which the final rule makes to the definition of intended use, as interpreted by FDA in the accompanying preambles, expand the types of evidence that are deemed relevant to determining whether a lawfully marketed drug or device has a new intended use and whether a product is intended for use as a drug or device. (more…)
Drug Diagnosis Code Data Sought by HHS OIG May Cue Enforcement
Leadership from HHS-OIG recently advocated for new mandates that physicians include a diagnosis code with each prescription and that claims data capture this information. This followed on the heels of a Congressional Research Service report suggesting that Congress should pass legislation requiring healthcare providers to include diagnostic information in prescriptions. As Sidley lawyers Jaime L.M. Jones, Brenna E. Jenny, and Matt Bergs discuss in an article published in Bloomberg Law entitled Drug Diagnosis Code Data Sought by HHS OIG May Cue Enforcement, HHS-OIG may see diagnosis code data as a tool to engage in nuanced investigations into pharmaceutical companies for off-label promotion of prescription drugs, leveraging law enforcement’s increasingly sophisticated capacity to use data analytics to identify targets for investigation.
A copy of the article is available here.
Ninth Circuit Revives FCA Claim Based on “Fraud on the FDA”
The Ninth Circuit recently revived a claim in a qui tam lawsuit against a medical device manufacturer based on a “fraud on the FDA” theory of liability under the False Claims Act. See United States ex rel. The Dan Abrams Co. LLC v. Medtronic PLC et al., No. 19-56377 (9th Cir. April 2, 2021).
Private Equity Settlement Highlights Risks for Investors in Life Sciences Industry
A recent settlement reinforces the potential liability facing private equity investors in the life sciences industry. As we previously reported, late last year The Gores Group (“Gores”) entered into a $1.5 million settlement agreement with the United States to resolve claims that the alleged off-label promotion by its portfolio company of combination drug-medical device systems for pediatric patients resulted in the submission of false claims to federal healthcare programs. Last month, Gores entered into a separate $1.5 million settlement agreement with certain states to resolve claims that the same alleged conduct resulted in the submission of false claims to state Medicaid programs. See U.S. ex rel. Johnson v. Therakos, Inc., Case No. 12-cv-1454 (E.D. Pa., filed Mar. 22, 2012). The participating states in the more recent settlement have sixty days to agree to the terms of that agreement; thus far at least California has joined. The claims resolved in these settlements arose from a qui tam suit.
Court Allows Off-Label Marketing Claims Against Individual Pharmaceutical Executives
Following a recent Florida case allowing an FCA suit to proceed against an individual pharmacy owner (on which we reported here), last week a judge in the District of Massachusetts ruled on a motion to dismiss an FCA action pending against nine individual defendants relating to allegations of off-label marketing of the Aegerion drug Juxtapid, which was approved to treat Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (“HoFH”). See United States ex rel. Clarke v. Aegerion Pharms., Inc., Case No. 1:13-cv-11785. The individuals filed a joint motion to dismiss, making arguments that applied to the complaint as a whole – such as causation and materiality – and also attacking the claims specific to the individuals. The court denied the motion as to the broadly applicable arguments. Most notable, however, is the Court’s discussion of whether the relators could pursue claims against individual defendants, including board members and executives of the manufacturer.
DOJ Official Outlines Enforcement Priorities Under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
James Burnham, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Consumer Protection Branch (“CPB”), addressed the annual Food and Drug Law Institute Conference (“FDLI”) on December 13, 2018 about DOJ’s enforcement priorities and tools in the FDA-regulated space. As head of the branch within DOJ that has responsibility for bringing civil and criminal actions for violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), and that works with DOJ Civil Frauds to bring actions based on those violations under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), Burnham outlined the principles that motivate enforcement action, the CPB’s current enforcement priorities, and some of the “new” enforcement tools CPB has at its disposal with respect to opioids. (more…)
Fifth Circuit Rules In Favor Of Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Based on Relators’ Failure to Establish Causation
Last week, the Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. on allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act as a result of off-label marketing efforts and kickbacks to physicians, emphasizing the relator’s failure to demonstrate a causal link between the alleged improper conduct and any false claims. (more…)
Unethical Investigative Work By Relator’s Counsel Leads to Dismissal of FCA Claims
On April 28, 2017, the District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed a qui tam complaint alleging off-label promotion against a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Dismissal was a sanction for relator’s counsel having devised and implemented what the Court called “an elaborate scheme of deceptive conduct in order to obtain information from physicians about their prescribing practices, and in some instances about their patients.”
Relator filed his initial complaint in 2012, alleging that the manufacturer was promoting off-label use of two drugs and paying physicians kickbacks for prescribing those drugs. While the case was under seal, the relator filed an amended complaint adding detail to his allegations and including a reference to a third drug. After the United States declined to intervene and the case was unsealed in April 2014, relator filed a second amended complaint that focused only on alleged off-label promotion of the third drug.
FDA Delays Effective Date of Its Aggressive Final Rule on Intended Use
On March 20, 2017, FDA announced a further delay of the effective date of its January 9, 2017, Final Rule entitled Clarification of When Products Made or Derived From Tobacco Are Regulated As Drugs, Devices or Combination Products; Amendments to Regulations Regarding “Intended Uses,” and requested comments on the industry petition filed in February requesting a stay and reconsideration of the Final Rule. 82 Fed. Reg. 14319; 82 Fed. Reg. 2193. The effective date of the Final Rule had already been delayed once by the incoming Administration. As a result of this most recent announcement, the expansive interpretation of intended use proposed by FDA will not be enforceable until at least March 19, 2018, although the controversial accompanying preamble language could be invoked now, including in False Claims Act (FCA) cases based on alleged violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).
Five Things To Know About The Amarin Settlement
On March 8, 2016, Amarin Pharma, Inc., advised Judge Paul Engelmayer of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that the company had reached agreement with the Government on the resolution of the parties’ dispute over Amarin’s entitlement to engage in certain types of communication to physicians regarding the health benefits of the company’s drug, VASCEPA.[1] Judge Engelmayer signed the proposed stipulation and order later that day.[2]
The settlement is noteworthy for the obvious reason that it continues the Government’s string of losses in First Amendment cases involving the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. But it also matters because it entitles Amarin to use a special advisory comment process for off-label materials, and did not condition resolution of the litigation on Amarin’s agreement to vacate the court’s powerful August opinion finding the FDA’s rejection of Amarin’s proposed claims unconstitutional. It is also important, however, because it appears to qualify Amarin’s victory somewhat, by holding the company accountable for the continued accuracy of its claims and permitting the Government to proceed against Amarin based on shifts in the science supporting those claims.