Eli Lilly accuses church bishops, businessmen of fraud in Trulicity drug rebate scheme

Eli Lilly says it has uncovered a long-running scheme to steal more than $200 million in rebates from its diabetes medication, Trulicity, accusing several bishops at a major Pentecostal church of fraud. The company filed a 66-page civil lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Miami. Here's how the scheme worked, according to Lilly: A Florida mail-order pharmacy called DrugPlace bought large quantities of Trulicity for years through authorized distributors, claiming the drugs were dispensed to patients who were members of the church. But Lilly alleges that in reality DrugPlace sold the Trulicity on the secondary market at the same time it was collecting fraudulent rebates from Lilly. According to the lawsuit, DrugPlace worked with Community Health Initiative, an organization affiliated with the Church of God in Christ that purportedly helped church members obtain expensive prescription drugs at a reduced cost. Lilly alleges DrugPlace served as the program's pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, handling prescription drug claims and rebate negotiations with drugmakers on the program's behalf. DrugPlace and Community Health operate from the same address in Tennessee, according to the lawsuit. Lilly alleges the organizations used members of the Church of God in Christ to support false rebate claims and said many of the patients tied to those submissions either did not exist or could not be verified. …