Pharmaceutical Fraud Attorneys for Whistleblowers

Nolan Auerbach & White provides experienced Pharmaceutical Fraud Lawyers for healthcare whistleblowers with knowledge of pharmaceutical kickbacks, fraud, and pricing fraud schemes under the qui tam provisions of the federal False Claims Act.


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With over 25 years of experience, our pharmaceutical litigation lawyers have helped numerous pharmaceutical fraud whistleblowers receive multi-million dollar Relator share awards. Call on our healthcare fraud law firm with confidence.

Are You Aware of Pharmaceutical Fraud?

Contact the Whistleblower Pharmaceutical Fraud Lawyers of Nolan, Auerbach & White to get started on a free and confidential review of your important case. Our healthcare fraud law firm has extensive experience handling whistleblower pharmaceutical cases and have played a part in the recovery of over $64 billion collected and returned to taxpayers since the False Claims Act (FCA) was amended in 1986.

Call our Qui Tam attorneys at 800-372-8304.


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Pharmaceutical Fraud Lawyer - The Whistleblower Firm

Pharmaceutical Claims of Fraud as a Whistleblower

The FCA provides incentives for employees with knowledge of Pharmaceutical Fraud to step forward and help expose the fraud. This includes knowledge of off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals, illegal pharmaceutical kickbacks, pricing fraud & more. Nolan Auerbach & White understands the courage it takes to come forward and expose wrongdoing. Our pharmaceutical fraud attorneys are here to evaluate the fraud and your situation, and if warranted, represent you and your interests in whistleblower pharmaceutical lawsuits.

Rewards for Pharmaceutical Fraud Whistleblowers

The purpose of the qui tam provisions of the FCA is to encourage private individuals who are aware of pharmaceutical off-label marketing fraud, pharmaceutical kickbacks, pharmaceutical pricing fraud, and other fraudulent activities being perpetrated against Government Healthcare Programs (such as Medicare and Medicaid), to bring such information forward.

The Qui tam provisions of the FCA provide incentives for pharmaceutical fraud whistleblowers to collect a percentage of recoveries from qui tam lawsuits. Whistleblower rewards for Pharmaceutical Fraud vary from 15-30 percent of the amount collected.

Nolan Auerbach pharmaceutical fraud attorneys have broad experience in preparing, investigating, and prosecuting FCA cases involving, inter alia, drug company kickbacks, pharmaceutical pricing schemes, false average sales price cases, and off-label whistleblower cases.

Whistleblower Confidentiality and Protection

If you are aware of pharmaceutical fraud or FCA violations, the law protects you as a whistleblower. We invite you to submit an overview of your case to our team of pharmaceutical fraud lawyers to begin this important service and duty. Your communications with our experienced pharmaceutical fraud attorneys are confidential. Contact us online or call us at 800-372-8304 to get started.

Learn More: Whistleblower Protection


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A Rising Number of Pharmaceutical Lawsuits Involving Fraud

Rising in numbers since the early 2000’s, pharmaceutical fraud whistleblowers have come out of the woodwork to expose pharmaceutical fraud. Numerous pharmaceutical fraud cases covering hundreds of pharmaceuticals and biologics are now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice under the FCA.

The largest recoveries in the past year have come from pharmaceutical fraud cases (including kickbacks, Medicaid rebate fraud, and best price violations) brought by whistleblowers.

Report These Types of Pharmaceutical Fraud

Pharmaceutical Fraud and other violations of the False Claims Act take place every day in our country. Our pharmaceutical fraud law firm can help when you’re ready to consider becoming a whistleblower.

Review below some of the most common fraud schemes we encounter in our work as whistleblower pharmaceutical fraud lawyers.

Pharmaceutical Kickbacks

Federal law prohibits pharmaceutical kickback fraud because it is thought to color the judgment of the physician, i.e. the physician will prescribe a prescription drug based not on what is best for the patient, but based upon money or other consideration provided to the physician or other healthcare provider by the pharmaceutical company. Kickbacks are likely to subvert medical decision-making, and as a result potentially resulting in patient harm, and costing Medicare, Medicaid and other Government healthcare programs needless additional expenses.

Other examples of kickbacks include:

  • Offering Pharmaceutical Kickbacks to Physicians in the Form of Phony Drug Studies – Some pharmaceutical companies have provided remuneration for post-marketing clinical studies as a means to induce physicians to prescribe their products. The “research” performed has little clinical value, and is merely a pretext for payments for referrals.
  • Pharmaceutical & Device Kickbacks To Patients – When a pharmaceutical manufacturer or device manufacturer provides items of value directly to patients, they may be in violation of the anti-kickback law.
  • “Phony Speaker fees” paid for by Honoraria – Some pharmaceutical companies have used “honorarium” fees or “speaker” fees for physician marketing. Approved by management, they are ostensibly compensation to physician speaker events.
  • Phony Grants – Approved by management, pharmaceutical sales representatives have been allowed by certain companies to give “grants” to physicians, physician groups and other healthcare providers, ostensibly for an educational program or research program.
  • Phony Investigator Meetings – “Investigator” meetings are used as an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to disseminate off-label and other forms of illegal marketing under the guise of science. Sales representatives are allowed and instructed to spend lavishly on all physicians, both the speakers and invitees. It has been typical for investigator meetings to last a few hours, yet pharmaceutical companies pay for weekend costs such as airfare, hotel, golf, spa treatments, etc. at luxury hotels at choice locations around the country.
  • Advisory Board and other Meetings – These meetings are typically for the ostensible purpose of getting input/feedback from physicians on drug performance, how they treat disease states, etc. During Advisory Board meetings, honoraria, lavish entertainment and expenses for physicians are paid for by the pharmaceutical companies.

Learn More: Anti-Kickback Statute

Off-label Marketing of Pharmaceuticals

Nolan Auerbach & White pharmaceutical fraud lawyers have extensive experience in this area of the law, but we are very selective. We believe that an off-label marketing case is worth pursuing only if the marketing is factually misleading and/or patient harm resulting from the illegal off-label promotion. Our pharmaceutical fraud lawyers have been very successful with this approach.

Learn More: Off-Label Marketing “Class Effect”

Clinical Trial Fraud

Clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies (“pharma”) may not always produce the same results as those conducted by the government and other public entities. For example, in an analysis published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, it was found that in every published trial funded by pharma that compared five new antipsychotic drugs against each other, 9 out of 10 concluded that the best drug was the one manufactured by the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the study.

The article suggests that such divergent results can be the result of biases in trial design and even in interpreting the study outcome. Experts say that this situation is even more prevalent in trials that measure symptomatic relief as opposed to whether or not a disease was actually cured, as such trials lend themselves to less stringent interpretation.

Nolan Auerbach pharmaceutical fraud attorneys represent whistleblowers in qui tam clinical trial fraud cases, involving drugs that were approved by the FDA based upon false data or misleading manipulation of the data.

Good Manufacturing Practices Fraud

Good Manufacturing Practices Fraud (GMP) happens when there is a violation of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) guidelines. GMP fraud frustrates the scientific process and jeopardizes the integrity of the drug product.

The GMP regulations stem from Congressional concern over the danger that impure and otherwise adulterated drugs might escape detection under a system predicated only on seizure of drugs shown to be in fact adulterated. That is, Congress desired to require manufacturers to abide by laws that, if complied with during the manufacturing stage, would theoretically prevent pharmaceuticals from contamination, bioavailability, or potency defects, for example.

The GMPs require manufacturers to have adequately equipped manufacturing facilities, adequately trained personnel, stringent control over the manufacturing process appropriate laboratory controls, complete and accurate records, reports, appropriate finished product examination, and so on. Certain violations of the Good Manufacturing Practice Regulations may be the basis for a FCA lawsuit.

Learn More: CGMP Violations

Additional False Claims Act Pharmaceutical Violations


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We’ll Help You Report Pharmaceutical Fraud

Our Pharmaceutical Fraud Law Firm is familiar with the various ways in which pharmaceutical companies have cut corners and engaged in fraud. We are fully qualified to represent you in whistleblower pharmaceutical cases.
Some of the first steps you should consider are:

  • Collect documentation – It’s critical not to not violate any company policies or procedures in this process. Ensure you are entitled to view, download or photocopy all materials and documentation.
  • Create a list of documents relevant to the case that are not in your possession.
  • Describe the fraud in a written memo. While the facts are fresh in your mind, it is important to reduce them to writing. This will not only help your recall years from now, it will help your lawyers in preparation of your case, and will help to make sure that your communications about your situation are as comprehensive as possible. Just the process of reducing the situation to writing, over a number of days or weeks, will allow you to recall more and fill in blanks over time.

LEARN MORE: Guide to Reporting Pharmaceutical Fraud


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Other Fraud Cases Whistleblowers Are Reporting

Our experienced Pharmaceutical Fraud Lawyers are available to discuss in-depth areas of Healthcare Fraud. We encounter many types of fraud and encourage private individuals to report:

Does your case have merit? Submit your facts confidentially to our experienced Pharmaceutical Fraud Law Firm today for a free case evaluation.
Nolan Auerbach and White

Contact a Pharmaceutical Fraud Law Firm for Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers are our heroes. When you as an employee are aware of significant fraud, the pressures of this knowledge can be great, as you can feel like so much is on the line both professionally and personally. We understand this and we’re here to help you take the next courageous steps.

Join the many whistleblower heroes that have answered the callings of their conscience. It’s time to do the right thing, expose violations of the law, and take a stand for justice. FCA whistleblowers can receive a percentage of the funds recovered from fraudulent activity.

Get started by filling out our online form, or give our experienced team of pharmaceutical fraud attorneys a call today at 800-372-8304.


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Frequently Asked Questions About Pharma Whistleblower Cases


Do Whistleblowers Get Paid for Exposing Pharmaceutical Fraud?

Yes, eligible whistleblowers may receive between 15-30 percent of the amount collected in pharmaceutical fraud cases. To learn about eligibility, begin a free review of your important case.


What Is Pharmaceutical Fraud?

Pharmaceutical fraud typically comes about as a violation of the False Claims Act. Some common schemes include kickbacks to physicians or patients, off-label marketing, clinical trial fraud, and violations of the Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. To learn more, click here to contact our team of Pharmaceutical Fraud Attorneys.

Kathleen Hawkins

Dignity Health
$37 million

Kathleen Hawkins, RN MSN, had been employed by Defendant, Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) for approximately 6 years when she decided she had had enough of trying to change the hospital system from within.

CHW, a California not-for-profit corporation that operated hospitals in California, Arizona, and Nevada, was at the time the eighth largest hospital system in the nation and the largest not-for-profit hospital provider in California.

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Joe Strom

Johnson & Johnson
$184 Million

Joe Strom contacted us in 2005. We were very grateful that he did. We immediately formed an all-star legal team and a process to stop a very harmful pharmaceutical marketing strategy. It was this process we set into motion that ultimately returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury, and a portion of that, very well-deserved, into Joe’s bank account.

Joe told us a very troubling story about the off-label promotion of a pharmaceutical drug for patients who already suffered from chronic heart failure.

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Bruce A. Moilan Sr.

$27 Million

Bruce Moilan was a seasoned hospital systems expert by the time he contacted our Firm. At the time he decided to file his qui tam lawsuit, he was employed by South Texas Health System as a System Director for Materials Management. In this position, he oversaw $24 million in annual purchases of supplies and equipment and helped determine budget, reduction and cost analysis throughout the contract bidding and negotiations process. His job was to insure proper implementation for purchasing, receiving and management of inventory, for McAllen Hospitals, L.P.

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