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Drug maker hires former Sen. Breaux to fight federal debarment threat
A pharmaceutical company at risk of losing government business has hired former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) to fight back against federal regulators.
The Department of Health and Human Services notified Forest Laboratories in April that it could bar CEO Howard Solomon from doing business with the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Forest last year paid the government $313 million to settle claims that it had paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed its antidepressants Lexapro and Celexa.
The notification is part of the government's stepped up effort to punish executives at companies that are believed to have engaged in healthcare fraud.
"It would be completely unwarranted to exclude a senior executive against whom there has never been any allegation of wrongdoing whatsoever," the statement said. "We are hopeful that HHS-OIG [Office of Inspector General] will decide that the facts and circumstances as to Mr. Solomon do not warrant an exercise of its exclusion authority."
The lobbying registration from Breaux's company, Breaux Lott Leadership Group, says simply that the firm has been hired to lobby on "(i)ssues with respect to debarment under HHS regulations."
Neither Forest nor the lobbying firm immediately responded to a request for comment.
Clarification: This post was updated Friday to better reflect the fact that HHS' debarment threat targets Howard Solomon, not Forest Labs.
