Feb 19 (Reuters) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday sued Sanofi for allegedly “bribing” providers to prescribe its medications over alternatives.
The attorney general’s office issued a statement saying that the company created programs to offer services to healthcare providers, which it alleges amounted to bribes in violation of the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.
“These services are structured to comply with applicable federal and state laws and are intended to support patients, not to influence prescribing decisions,” Sanofi said in a statement.
“The state’s intervention has no bearing on the merits of this case, and Sanofi is zealously defending this litigation,” Sanofi added.
Attorney General Paxton is seeking monetary relief of over a million dollars, including civil penalties, as well as an injunction to stop any further unlawful acts, the statement said.
The Attorney General has previously sued Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb for failing to disclose that their drug to prevent blood clots Plavix did not work effectively for certain patients.
Last year, Texas also sued Eli Lilly for allegedly “bribing” providers to prescribe its most profitable drugs, including the GLP-1 medications Mounjaro and Zepbound.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru and Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
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