Allergan Dodges Health Fraud Case as Court Tells Copycat ‘No’

Allergan dodged a health-care fraud bullet when a federal appeals court rejected a whistleblower’s lawsuit alleging the drugmaker paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe cataract drugs.

Whistleblower John Wood’s False Claims Act case against the pharmaceutical giant had to be dismissed because it was not the first lawsuit to be filed detailing the allegedly fraudulent scheme, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Aug. 9. Wood alleged Allergan gave physicians $100 million in drug samples, care kits, customized instruction sheets, and prescription pads as kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe the company’s cataract drugs.

The FCA, however, ...