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Editor: Mike Bothwell
Profession: Qui Tam Attorney

Category: Settlements and Verdicts

The Pharmacy America Trusts settled allegations by a whistleblower pharmacist by paying $35 million. The suit alleged that Walgreens knowingly defrauded Medicaid by switching prescriptions for ranitidine, the generic form of the brand-name drug Zantac®, and fluoxetine, the generic form of Prozac®.

Qui tam Relator Bernard Lisitza, on behalf of the United States, 42 states and Puerto Rico, alleged that Walgreens unlawfully caused its pharmacies to switch prescription Medicaid patients from ranitidine tablets to ranitidine capsules, and from fluoxetine capsules to fluoxetine tablets.

The alleged fraud lasted for more than four years, from July 16, 2001 through December 31, 2005. The Relator brought the Complaint in 2003, under qui tam provisions of federal and state False Claims Acts.

The investigation and prosecution was led by the Attorneys General of the 42 states. Relator Lisitza pursued the case with the assistance of his attorneys, Michael I. Behn and Linda Wyetzner, of Behn & Wyetzner, Chartered, Chicago.