BRIEF—Gilead accuses healthcare networks of stealing millions

US biotech Gilead Sciences has accused two Florida healthcare networks of being involved in a fraudulent scheme to steal millions of dollars from the company’s Advancing Access Medication Assistance Program (MAP) to provide eligible uninsured persons with free medication to help protect them from becoming infected with HIV.

According to the complaint, the networks have been operating parallel schemes in which they allegedly recruit placeholder patients, prescribe them medically unnecessary, inappropriate, and often unwanted medication, seek reimbursement from Gilead, unlawfully remove the medicine from its original packaging, repackage it in an unlawful, trademark-infringing, and potentially dangerous manner for dispensation to the recruited patients, and unlawfully repurchase the drugs back from patients for pennies on the dollar so that they can be resold at a higher price on the black market.

The drugs mentioned in the lawsuit are Truvada and Descovy (emtricitabine/tenofovir).

Gilead claims that the networks exploited this system and defrauded the firm out of tens of millions of dollars, placing the health—and even the lives—of Floridians who are economically challenged, at risk.
As of Tuesday evening, the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida had granted Gilead’s temporary restraining order against the healthcare networks.