Lilly used nursing services as kickbacks to boost insulin prescriptions, lawsuit claims

After Novo Nordisk settled a lawsuit alleging it marketed certain drugs under a "white coat" sales scheme, fellow diabetes drug giant Eli Lilly is facing similar claims of illicit marketing. A recently unsealed lawsuit claims the company ran a "multi-tiered kickback scheme" to pump up sales of key blockbusters.

The lawsuit, filed in June and unsealed late last month, alleges Eli Lilly worked with Healthstar Communications and VMS Biomarketing to provide free nursing services to induce doctors to prescribe Lilly diabetes meds Humalog and Humulin, plus osteoporosis drug Forteo. The lawsuit also targets Covance and an Express Scripts unit, saying the two companies pitched into the setup by helping prescribers attain reimbursement. 

"While purporting to provide independent medical advice and disease-awareness information, the nurse educators were in reality acting as undercover sales reps for Lilly, focused on the mission Lilly had retained them to accomplish," the suit says. That mission, according to the lawsuit, was to refer the Lilly products to prescribers and patients. 

Eli Lilly representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.