Sanofi Fails to Stop Fraud Suit Alleging Gifts for Prescriptions

A False Claims Act whistleblower adequately alleged that Sanofi’s Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. violated the False Claims Act by paying sham speaking fees, grants, meals, and gifts to doctors as kickbacks to induce prescriptions of cancer drug Taxotere, a Pennsylvania federal court said Thursday.

Former sales representative Yoash Gohil produced sufficient evidence to show that Aventis submitted claims to the government that were tainted by payments to doctors to attend all-expenses paid trips to Rome and New York to attend advisory boards in exchange for prescription increases, Judge Anita B. Brody of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of ...