Merck & Company is defending thousands of NuvaRing lawsuits in state and federal courts across the nation filed by women who were injured by the vaginal contraceptive ring. However, another lawsuit has been filed against the pharmaceutical giant – this time alleging that it engaged in illegal activity.

Merck Accused Of Lying To Government

Two former Merck & Company employees filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the drugmaker alleging that it offered huge discounts to Planned Parenthood to prescribe NuvaRing, but violated federal law by not reporting those discounts to the government.

According to YCharts, Organon BioSciences (which Merck acquired through its purchase of Schering-Plough) offered to sell NuvaRing to Planned Parenthood for $3 per unit in the hopes that clients would like the product and eventually be willing to pay full price for it – $34 per unit. While that may seem like a good marketing strategy, it’s actually illegal in this case.

The Medicaid Rebate Statute requires drugmakers to report their ‘best prices’ and other product pricing information to the federal government in order to ensure Medicaid obtains the same discounts and concessions given other customers – unless they are ‘nominal’ in amount. Organon allegedly concealed the fact that all sales were contingent on Planned Parenthood’s purchasing 360,000 devices every year from 1999 to 2005 – which would have resulted in millions of dollars in profit.

NuvaRing Injury Lawsuits Continue

The whistleblower lawsuit is certainly not good news for Merck & Company and comes at a bad time as the company continues to defend the 1,200 NuvaRing injury lawsuits pending in state and federal courts across the nation alleging stroke, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis and more continue to be filed. Contact The Driscoll Firm, LLC, if you’ve been injured by NuvaRing side effects and determine whether you might be entitled to compensation in the form of lost income, medical bills and pain and suffering.