Ninth Circuit Revives Adventist Health’s Drug Price Fraud Suit

AbbVie Inc. and other pharmaceutical companies will have to continue facing Adventist Health System/West’s whistleblower suit alleging Medicaid fraud after a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday it was wrongly dismissed.

Adventist plausibly pleads falsity under the False Claims Act and the district court’s finding of an absence of a private right of action under a federal drug pricing program was immaterial, Judge Roopali H. Desai said in an opinion. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Adventist’s qui tam suit and remanded it for further proceedings.

“Because Adventist asserts legally ...