Posts Tagged ‘ Whistleblower ’

Budweiser Uses Water to Fight Water; Says Whistleblowers Are Confused

March 6th, 2013. By AbiK

So after a few Budweiser class action lawsuits were filed last week over allegations that the King of Beers was selling ‘watered down’ beer, Budweiser took the opportunity to strike back. But rather than just defend itself or call the watered-down beer allegations pure bunk, it tried to get clever. How so? Anheuser Busch ran a full-page ad featuring a picture of Budweiser Water—actual canned water—that the brewer produces for disaster relief efforts.

Here’s the full-page ad:

Tags: Anheuser Busch, Budweiser, Budweiser Class Action, Budweiser Lawsuit, Consumer Fraud, Michelob, Whistleblower
Posted in Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Whistleblower | 1 Comment »

Top 10 Whistleblower Cases of 2012 Net Over $7.5B

February 4th, 2013. By AbiK

A recent report by the Federal Elections Commission has come out putting the cost of the recent election cycle at more than $7 billion. That’s a lot of money. Enough that the folks over at Newsy put together the little video clip (above) about it.

But $7 billion ironically pops up in another tally for 2012—the top 10 whistleblower settlements for the year add up to more than $7.5 billion. It’s a staggering amount—not only for an election, but also for whistleblower cases as, think about it, it only represents the tip of the iceberg.

If you’re wondering what those whistleblower settlements were, here’s the list:

1. GlaxoSmithKine – $3 billion

Reason: Illegally marketing some of its prescription drugs such as Paxil, Avandia, Advair, Wellbutrin, Zofran, Imitrex, Lamictal, Lotronex, Floven and Valtrex.

2. Abbott Laboratories – $1.5 billion

Reason: Abbott’s off-label marketing of Depakote.

3. Bank of America – $1 billion

Reason: Mortgage and bank fraud.

4. Merck – $950 million

Reason: Marketing Vioxx illegally

5. Pfizer – $491 million

Reason: Kickbacks and using off-label marketing for organ transplant rejection drug, Rapamune

6. Senior Care Action Network – $323 million

Reason: California Medicaid and HMO cost reporting fraud.

7. Actavis – $202 million

Reason: to settle numerous claims that the company reported inflated prices of its drugs, causing the US and four state governments to overpay.

8. Deutsche Bank – $202 million

Reason: False certification for HUD/FHA loans

9. Oracle – $199 million

Reason: Failure to provide discount pricing

10. McKesson – $190 million

Reason: Accusations that the company inflated prices of numerous prescription drugs, resulting in Medicaid overpaying for those drugs.

Tags: false claims, Fraud, Off Label Marketing, Whistleblower
Posted in Emerging Issues, Whistleblower | 1 Comment »

Actos Lawsuit Angles: How Many Can You Come Up With?

May 14th, 2012. By AbiK

If you’ve tried to figure out what’s going on with Actos—and more specifically, Actos lawsuits–you’ve probably found it can get a bit confusing. This drug has more lawsuit angles now than a tetrahedron. So here’s a list of Actos lawsuit angles:

Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuits

Actos bladder cancer lawsuits are not class action lawsuits. These are lawsuits filed by individuals who allege they now have bladder cancer because of taking Actos to treat their type 2 diabetes.

When there are many individual lawsuits claiming similar injury (i.e., Actos bladder cancer) brought on by the same defendant(s), it’s a mass tort not a class action. The reason for that is because even though all the victims have bladder cancer, each individual case will be different—for example, the extent of harm will be different from one victim to another, and any damages paid needs to reflect that. In a class action lawsuit, everyone in the class receives the same exact damages.

Typically, parts of a mass tort that are in common across all injured parties will be consolidated into what’s called ‘multi-district litigation’ (MDL). Once the common aspects of all the lawsuits have been resolved, any individual lawsuit differences can be addressed.

Actos Class Action Lawsuit

While there is not an Actos class action lawsuit for bladder cancer injury itself, there has been an Actos class action filed that alleges Takeda, the manufacturer of Actos, engaged in wrongful conduct when it designed, manufactured and marketed the drug–because the drug wound up being linked to bladder cancer and getting an FDA warning because of it.

Actos Whistleblower Lawsuit

Moving right along, a former consultant for Takeda, Dr. Helen Ge, came forward in a whistleblower lawsuit stating that Takeda knew about and yet either did not report or underreported cases of both Actos bladder cancer and Actos myocardial infarction (i.e., Actos heart attack).

According the lawsuit, Ge asserted that “Takeda instructed its medical reviewers not to report hundreds of non-hospitalized or non-fatal congestive heart failure cases as ‘serious adverse events and thus avoided its responsibility of accurately analyzing and reporting these hundreds of serious adverse events to the FDA.

Actos Heart Attack Lawsuit

Like the song “One Thing Leads to Another”, the Actos whistleblower lawsuit sheds light on another potential Actos lawsuit angle: myocardial infarction. Initally, in 2007, the FDA placed a warning on Actos (and Avandia) for congenital heart failure. That warning, however, did not include mention of mycardial infarction (i.e., heart attack). Yet, there had been complaints of Actos heart attack, and those complaints more or less hung in limbo. With Dr. Ge stepping forward, however, it would appear that her allegations could spell more lawsuits for Takeda—this time from Actos heart attack victims. If, in fact, Takeda knew that there was an increased risk for myocardial infarction given their own adverse event reports but did not report that risk, the potential for additional Actos lawsuits is there.

And that could perhaps mean a whole other Actos lawsuit…in the form of an Actos class action. After all, remember how Takeda aggressively advertised that it was a “safer” alternative to Avandia once Avandia took the hit for heart side effects? Stay tuned.

Tags: Actos, Actos Bladder Cancer, Actos class action lawsuit, Actos heart attack, Actos Lawsuit, Dr. Ge, Takeda, type 2 diabetes, Whistleblower
Posted in Class Action, Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »

Biz as Usual: Novo Nordisk Settles re NovoSeven, Seeks Brand Manager

June 14th, 2011. By AbiK

In case this one slipped under your radar, Danish drug company Novo Nordisk agreed to a settlement to the tune of $25 million to put to bed whistleblower allegations that it wrongly marketed its drug, NovoSeven (aka recombinant human coagulation Factor VIIa, or simply, Factor VII) as a treatment for traumatic bleeding due to injury.

Of course, outside of hemophiliacs—the obvious and intended audience for such a drug—who else could such a drug be marketed to? Well, gee, who might bleed a lot…let’s see…uh…well, there’s been a war going on over in Iraq and Afghanistan…maybe NovoSeven could be used to stop a soldier’s bleeding…whatdya think?

Sure, I’m being facetious here as I’m wont to do—but could such a scenario have really been all that far off—even if Novo Nordisk claims otherwise?

And ordinarily, this might have a shred of altruism to it—who wouldn’t want to help our soldiers? But here’s the catch: it seems that, according to The Baltimore Sun, NovoSeven was “a largely experimental drug” and it lacked FDA approval for combat wounds. According to the article, Novo Nordisk began promoting NovoSeven to military doctors way back in 2000, and by 2006, “Army protocol in Baghdad called for injecting it into virtually every casualty with signs of serious bleeding. Some Special Forces units in Afghanistan supplied combat medics with the drug, to inject in the field.”

Sounds like fairly extensive and routine use to me. 

Add to this that studies have shown that off-label use of NovoSeven—which not only includes using it to treat combat wounds but also using NovoSeven for intracranial hemorrhage, cardiac surgery and aortic aneurysm, liver transplants and prostatectomy—has not translated to a reduction in mortality rates, and the use of NovoSeven for heart surgery and intracranial hemorrhage actually increased the risk of thromboembolism.

And this is how we want to treat our soldiers’ combat wounds?

I use the term “treat” a bit loosely—The Baltimore Sun had profiled three soldiers who’d been “treated” with NovoSeven in a series of articles written back in 2006. Sadly, two of those three soldiers later died as a result of complications related to blood clots. (Post script, the FDA has since added a warning to NovoSeven.)

Regardless, Novo Nordisk claims no wrongdoing (of course) in the NovoSeven settlement and, as business must keep on movin’ on, it appears Novo Nordisk is now seeking a new Senior Brand Manager for NovoSeven (see job posting above).

Tags: Afghanistan, Factor VII, Iraq, Novo Nordisk, NovoSeven, NovoSeven Lawsuit, NovoSeven Settlement, Soldiers, Veterans, Whistleblower
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Veterans, Whistleblower | 1 Comment »

GOP Whistleblower Site to Keep Tabs on Their Own

January 12th, 2011. By AbiK

And then some.

Call me jaded. Call me skeptical. Call me “oh, ye of little faith”. But I’m guessing most of you out there will call me a realist when you take into consideration that House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is running a whistleblower website (see pic; wb-gop-oversight.house.gov/) whereby government insiders and the general public can blow the whistle on perceived (or real) fraud or misconduct—done by anyone regardless of party affiliation.

By the way, for those who don’t breathe, eat, and live this stuff on a daily basis, when we’re talking government fraud, we’re talking “Qui Tam” whistleblower cases. More on what the heck Qui Tam means can be found here on our blog.

I do commend the effort—Issa’s not only got the website going—it’s a form that you can fill out to report government fraud, and of course, while you are required to submit your email address or phone number, all details provided will be “kept in strict confidence”. But he’s out there socializing it as well in an effort to not only be accessible but seemingly more transparent. Go Rep Issa.

According to a post over at TheHill.com, Issa’s also got a twitter account (@DarrellIssa, and yes we (@OnlineLegalNews) follow him) where he responds to tweets shot over in his direction.

[Note to self: given recent requests (er, subpoenas) for info exchanged on Twitter re: WikiLeaks, maybe not ideal to post sensitive info, questions, allegations, or otherwise on Twitter…]

Interestingly too, the article at TheHill.com also has some comments—one’s from a Daniel Haszard who’s a steady commenter here at LawyersandSettlements.com on Zyprexa. Guess it is true we all run in the same circles… But another, from Back Firer, reads “He just opened the door for more crazy people to take their anger out on govenment. This man is on a witch hunt, but the hunt will back fire.” Well, perhaps, but I do agree there will be quite a number of “vent” submissions, and submissions from crackpots, and I pity the fool who’s going to have to moderate it all.

But—I suppose if it does stop even just one act of fraud, maybe it’s worth it.

Again, I do commend Issa’s efforts—but for my money, give me an attorney who specializes in whistleblower litigation. I so want to trust that the powers that be will do the right thing, with zero repercussions or retaliation, but like I said, call me jaded, I just can’t “go there” yet.

What do you think?

Tags: Darrell Issa, Government Fraud, Qui Tam, Whistleblower
Posted in Consumer Fraud, Whistleblower | No Comments »