Aventis pays over $190 million to settle fraudulent pricing case

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Aventis Pharmaceuticals (now known as sanofi-aventis U.S. Inc. and sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC.) paid the United States and several individual states over $190 million to settle allegations of false Medicare claims and alleged [tag]fraudulent[/tag] pricing and marketing of drugs.

The alleged violations of the False Claims Act revolve around Anzemet, and antiemetic drug used to prevent nausea for oncology and radiation patients. It is alleged that the company engaged in a scheme to set and maintain inflated and fraudulent prices for Anzemet based upon the company’s knowledge of federal reimbursement rates. Aventis charged one price to federal programs, and another lower price to customers.

A False Claims Act suit was filed on behalf of the government by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc., a home infusion company. This company became a [tag]whistleblower[/tag] with the suit, and will receive $32 million of the settlement because of it.

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