Pfizer Inc., Petitioner v. Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.

  1. July 14, 2023

    Justices Quietly Added Ammo To Big Pharma's Kickback Blitz

    The pharmaceutical industry's ambitious assault on an increasingly formidable law against health care corruption is suddenly equipped with powerful ammunition in the form of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in seemingly unrelated areas, according to attorneys leading the industry's attack.

  2. April 21, 2023

    Seminal Kickback Rulings Mean 'You're Rarely In A Safe Zone'

    Landmark litigation over quid pro quo payments in health care is forcing providers to walk a fine line between perfectly legal conduct and exposure to "huge monetary penalties" and prison time, a BigLaw veteran and onetime architect of government health fraud protocols told Law360.

  3. April 07, 2023

    'Critically Sensitive' Kickback Issue Hurtles Toward High Court

    U.S. Supreme Court justices will likely scrutinize a new and "compelling" circuit split over evidence the U.S. Department of Justice and whistleblowers must supply in the False Claims Act's vast realm of kickback cases, one of Uncle Sam's longest-serving health fraud watchdogs told Law360.

  4. March 27, 2023

    How Kickbacks Became King In False Claims Act Litigation

    The transformation of a little-used law against health care kickbacks into a powerful theory of False Claims Act liability has been so successful that enforcement is now spearheaded by a "well-funded" plaintiffs bar that is "in it for the money," a former government lawyer who championed the transformation told Law360.

  5. March 18, 2023

    50 Years In, Industry Has Knives Out For Potent Kickback Law

    After 50 years of existence, the nation's signature statute criminalizing health care corruption faces a moment of truth amid industry-led legal challenges and new circuit splits — an inflection point with clear echoes of the landmark law's turbulent evolution into a formidable fraud fighter, attorneys told Law360.

  6. January 09, 2023

    Justices Jilt Pfizer's Kickback Attack, But Dispute Isn't Done

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to entertain Pfizer's high-profile challenge to a powerful kickback law that has generated billions of dollars in fraud settlements, but the underlying controversy continues in nearly identical litigation that might soon open a circuit split.

  7. January 05, 2023

    The Hottest FCA Cases & Trends To Watch In 2023

    The never-not-busy False Claims Act realm will be extra active in 2023 as the U.S. Supreme Court delivers at least one FCA opinion — and perhaps two or even three — in headliner cases during a year in which attorneys are also eyeing a new circuit split and emerging enforcement frontiers.

  8. December 14, 2022

    HHS Pans Pfizer's 'Far-Fetched' Kickback Views At High Court

    Pfizer's ambitious assertion that kickback cases require evidence of corrupt intent has "no grounding" in statutory text and relies on fearmongering about prosecutions of innocent individuals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

  9. November 14, 2022

    Drug Lobby Touts Pfizer's Kickback Challenge At High Court

    The pharmaceutical industry's largest lobbying group Monday threw its weight behind Pfizer's attack on federal health-fraud enforcers, warning the U.S. Supreme Court that capacious views of a key kickback law have "far-reaching implications" for prosecutorial powers and whistleblower-led litigation.

  10. October 14, 2022

    Pfizer Gives Justices Rare Shot At Scrutinizing Kickback Ban

    After back-to-back defeats in lower courts, Pfizer is forging ahead at the U.S. Supreme Court with its closely watched quest to weaken a powerful prohibition on health care kickbacks, telling the justices that they have a golden opportunity to prevent "staggeringly overbroad" enforcement.