Warner Chilcott to pay $125 million over kickback scheme, former drug company officials indicted

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott will plead guilty and pay $125 million after admitting to paying kickbacks to doctors and other healthcare professionals so they would prescribe drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace, Loestrin and others, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

In addition, the company admitted to filing fraudulent prior authorization requests to fly under the radar of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In fact, sales representatives coached physicians to document medical justifications would result in an approved prior authorization, even if patients did not have any of those conditions.

[Also: Running list of notable 2015 healthcare frauds]

The DOJ also indicted former company president Carl Reichel and district managers Timothy Garcia and Landon Eckles, as well as Rita Luthra, a Massachusetts physician. Former district manager Jeffrey Podolosky pleaded guilty to his involvement in the scheme in July.

The suit, filed by law firms Seeger Weiss LLP, The Simmer Law Group and MoloLamken, came about after former Warner Chilcott sales representatives came forward as whistleblowers. They will share in $22.9 million from the suit under a DOJ program that rewards whistleblowers a portion of settlements or awards for exposing frauds.

"Our clients risked their careers and personal well-being in coming forward with these allegations and assisting DOJ with its investigation," said lawyer Stephen A. Weiss of Seeger in a statement. "They each actively cooperated with the government's criminal investigation for many months, helping to confirm just how important and valuable the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act are in rooting out and bringing an end to corporate fraud."

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Warner Chilcott employees not only paid cash kickbacks, but also showered participants in the fraud with lavish meals and hired physicians who prescribed high volumes of its drugs as "speakers" for the company at events, a front for the company to pay these kickbacks and offer other gifts. According to the DOJ, Warner Chilcott executives also threatened to revoke "speaker" status if a physician's prescription volume fell.

"Doctors' medical judgment should be based on what is best for the patient, and not clouded by expensive meals and other pharmaceutical company kickbacks," said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz for the District of Massachusetts in a statement.  "Pharmaceutical company executives and employees should not be involved with treatment decisions or submissions to a patient's insurance company."

Twitter: @HenryPowderly