Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced Thursday that Idaho has joined 47 states and the federal government in a settlement agreement with Qualitest Pharmaceuticals.
Qualitest is a manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical products, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals. The settlement resolves allegations of unlawful labeling practices involving Qualitest-branded multivitamin tablets with fluoride, according to a news release from Wasden’s office.
Idaho will receive $87,467 from the settlement.
According to the whistleblower lawsuit, Qualitest unlawfully labeled and marketed the tablets as containing the American Dental Association (ADA) recommended amount of fluoride when, in fact, the tablets contained less than half that amount.
Under the terms of the civil settlement, Qualitest will pay $39,000,000 to the states and federal governments, plus interest. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York under the provisions of the federal False Claims Act and analogous state False Claims statutes, the news release said.
Between October 1, 2007, to on or about August 31, 2013, Qualitest violated federal and state false claims act statutes by marketing, selling, and distributing Qualitest fluoride tablets that contained less than 50% of the fluoride indicated on the labels and, thereby, caused the submissions of false claims to state Medicaid programs.
A team from the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units worked with the federal government on the investigation and conducted settlement negotiations with Qualitest on behalf of the states.
