Drug companies settle claim of misleading doctors on cancer survival data

Roche’s Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals will pay $67 million (£47m; €60m) to settle claims that they misled doctors by inflating cancer survival data with their non-small cell lung cancer drug erlotinib (Tarceva). The case is the first time the US government has recovered money through the False Claims Act based on a drug manufacturer’s misleading statements about its drug’s survival data.

The False Claims Act is the US government’s instrument of choice for recovering money when it believes that companies have defrauded the public purse. Medical fraud accounted for more than half of the $3.5bn recovered last year. Typically this involved accusations of kickbacks …