A Texas health insurance company is suing Pfizer Inc. saying the drug maker deceptively marketed three of its top-selling drugs, illegally encouraging doctors to prescribe them for non-approved uses and paying kickbacks to doctors.
Health Care Service Corp., which runs Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and covers 12.4 million people in four states, filed the lawsuit against Pfizer on June 4.
Pfizer has settled other similar lawsuits and agreed in September to pay $2.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties over its promotion of Bextra, Lyrica, Geodon and other drugs.
Health Care Service Corp., which said it found out about Pfizer's actions because of that settlement, claims the New York drug maker gave doctors misleading information about the safety and effectiveness of the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra, about anti-psychotic Geodon and about nerve pain and epilepsy treatment Lyrica.
The insurer claims in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas that Pfizer encouraged doctors to use the drugs for conditions they had not been approved to treat, a practice known as prescribing off-label.
Doctors can legally prescribe drugs off-label, but drug companies can't promote them to treat illnesses not listed on their federally approved labels.
The insurer also claims Pfizer paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed the drugs.
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