Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for allegedly offering illegal incentives to medical providers, violating the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.
Plaintiffs—Paxton’s office and New Jersey-based Health Care Alliance—seek $1,000,000 in monetary relief.
The suit alleges that the company participated in two illegal schemes that induced “medical providers to prescribe its most profitable drugs.”
Eli Lilly offers many products for treating diseases such as diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and eczema. Additionally, the company is widely recognizable for Zepbound and Mounjaro, which respectively function as weight loss and diabetes medications.
Paxton claims that a “free nurse” program offered by the company violates anti-kickback laws meant to prevent the influence of compensation on patient care.
The LillyDirect program, which connects prospective patients with healthcare providers portrayed as “independent” and “third-party,” also paid providers to prescribe Lilly’s products to patients.
Moreover, Lilly’s “Support Services” program paid reimbursements to providers who prescribed Eli Lilly’s products. According to Paxton’s suit, this unethical process gave Eli Lilly an unfair advantage in the highly competitive pharmaceutical market.
“Big Pharma compromised medical decision-making by engaging in an illegal kickback scheme,” said Paxton. “Eli Lilly fraudulently sought to maximize profits at taxpayer expense and put corporate greed over people’s health. I will not stand by while corporations unlawfully manipulate our healthcare system to line their own pockets.”
This suit follows previous legal action in October 2024, when the attorney general’s office sued pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, for raising the price of insulin by 1,000 percent.
An Eli Lilly spokesperson told Texas Scorecard, “Multiple courts and the federal government have rejected claims by this same corporate relator against Lilly as meritless. In fact, the United States government determined that ‘the relators’ allegations lack sufficient factual and legal support’ in a prior case, explaining that ‘federal healthcare programs have a strong interest in ensuring that, after a physician has appropriately prescribed a medication, patients have access to basic product support relating to their medication.'”
“We intend to vigorously defend against these allegations,” they added.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
