As the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold last April, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney filed a lawsuit against FPR Specialty Pharmacy and Mead Square Pharmacy, and their owners, Christopher Casey and William Rue, alleging that they had submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement to federal health care programs for compounded prescription drugs in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

Specifically, the government contended that, from 2011 through 2015, the pharmacies had dispensed a compounded prescription analgesic cream known as Focused Pain Relief from their facility in Victor, N.Y., to patients around the country. According to the government’s complaint, many of the pharmacies’ patients were beneficiaries of federal health care programs such as TRICARE, Medicare, federal employee workers’ compensation programs overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program.