BRIEF—Eli Lilly pocketed $60 million intended for Medicaid, jury told

Eli Lilly defrauded the US federal government of $60 million by deliberately leaving retroactive drug price increases out of the metrics it was required to include for Medicaid rebate calculations, an Illinois federal jury heard last Friday, according to a Law360 report.

Jurors were told that Lilly knowingly failed to pay the government a reasonable deduction of more than $500 million that it pocketed from drug wholesalers between 2005 and 2017, which intentionally changed its retrospective for the “average manufacturer price” metric.

Whistleblower Ronald Streck filed the initial suit against Lilly, claiming the drug manufacturer violated the False Claims Act by submitting false statements and certifications both to the USA as well as to several states in its Medicaid rebate program, ultimately underpaying.

The trial continues.