Biogen Accused of Baiting Patients With Illegal Drug Co-Pays

Biogen Inc. was accused by a managed-care provider of illegally boosting sales of its pricey multiple sclerosis drugs by providing them free to patients on a temporary basis and then funneling money to them for co-payments so they can keep taking the medications.

The first part of the scheme involves “seeding” the drugs -- Tysabri, Avonex, and Tecfidera -- to multiple sclerosis sufferers who lacked medical insurance, according to the lawsuit filed Friday by Humana Inc.

After a few months, Biogen encourages the patients to sign up for government-funded healthcare and then funnels “illegal copayment assistance to those same patients ...