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The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

GlaxoSmithKline

Zofran and Kytril False Claims Act Violations

Date: 09/20/2005 (Date of Press Release)

Misconduct Type: Defective Pricing

Enforcement Agency: Health and Human Servs.

Contracting Party: None

Court Type: Civil

Amount: $150,000,000

Disposition: Settlement

Synopsis: GlaxoSmithKline paid over $150 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act through the fraudulent drug pricing and marketing of the anti-emetic drugs Zofran and Kytril. GSK allegedly engaged in a scheme to set and maintain inflated prices for Zofran and Kytril knowing that federal healthcare programs established reimbursement rates based on those prices, and thereby caused false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare and other federal healthcare programs. The government also alleged GSK engaged in a "double dipping" billing scheme with respect to Kytril by encouraging customers to pool leftover vials of Kytril to create an extra dose, which would then be administered to a patient and re-billed to government healthcare programs.