Pharmaceutical companies sometimes engage in off-label marketing in order to profit from the broader use of their drugs than the specific, Food and Drug Administration-approved uses. One recent example of a company allegedly engaged in this practice is Shire Pharmaceuticals, LLC, based in Pennsylvania. It was the first national settlement in which Medicaid managed care damages have been calculated and included as part of a recovery.
I, along with 49 other attorneys general and the federal government, recently reached a $56.5 million settlement with Shire Pharmaceuticals to resolve allegations that the company engaged in off-label marketing campaigns that improperly promoted five of its drugs: Adderrall XR, Vyvanse, Daytrona, Lialda and Pentasa. Adderrall XR, Vyvanse and Daytrona are FDA-approved for treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Lialda and Pentasa are approved for the treatment of mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis. The states’ Medicaid programs will receive $48.1 million of the settlement to resolve civil allegations of false submitted claims to government health care programs. Florida’s share of the total Medicaid settlement amounts to more than $900,000.
