A California pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $750,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of claims for certain opioids in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. From Dec. 1, 2015, through Aug. 31, 2016, Sentynl Therapeutics Inc., of Solana Beach, California, a specialty pharmaceutical company, marketed and sold prescription opioids Abstral and Levorphanol Tartrate (Levorphanol). The settlement resolves allegations that, during the relevant time period, Sentynl knowingly caused the submission of claims for Abstral and Levorphanol medications to Medicare in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. These allegedly false claims resulted from Sentynl’s alleged indirect payment of kickbacks to a physician. Specifically, the United States contends that Sentynl hired the girlfriend of a physician who was a top prescriber of Transmucosal Immediate Release Fentanyl (TIRF) medications to act as a sales representative in South Florida – the same region in which the physician practiced. Sentynl hired, employed, and made salary and bonus payments to the physician’s girlfriend to induce the physician to prescribe its Abstral and Levorphanol medications.
