Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 | 5:55 p.m.
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced today that the state had reached a tentative $6.9 million agreement with a major drug manufacturer.
Cortez Masto said that the agreement by the Nevada Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is part of a nationwide settlement in which Cephalon, Inc., will pay a total of $425 million for damages to Medicaid programs across the country.
The settlement includes a $50 million criminal fine against the company arising from criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The settlement resolves allegations that Cephalon promoted certain drugs used to treat sleepiness, tiredness, seizures, anxiety, insomnia and pain, said Tim Terry, director of the state's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The drugs involved the FDA-approved Provigil which treated sleep disorders, Gabitril for seizures, anxiety, insomnia and pain and Actiq used to treat patients for whom morphine-based pain killers were no longer effective.
Cephalon was accused of improper off-label marketing campaigns that extended the drugs' use to treat a broader variety of symptoms, or in the case of Gabitril, failing to warn patients who did not have epilepsy about the risk of seizures.
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