A federal judge in Massachusetts recently dismissed a case brought by Humana insurance accusing a drug manufacturer Biogen of making unlawful donations to different charities to help fund patient copays of its multiple sclerosis drugs to increase its number of prescriptions and sales.
In September 2021, Humana filed a complaint that claimed Biogen developed a scheme to lure Medicare and its insurers to overpay for Tysabri, Avonex, and Tecfidera, which cost about $50,000 to $80,000 per year. Biogen allegedly “seeded” the market by giving away free medication to patents who lacked insurance coverage and then began “sweeping” patients from its free-drug program into Medicare or other government-funded healthcare programs and then funneling illegal copayment assistance to those same patients under the guise of unrestricted charitable giving, according to the complaint.
