backKing & Spalding (K&S) secured a victory in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit where the court issued an opinion affirming the dismissal with prejudice of plaintiff Christopher Carew’s amended False Claims Act complaint against Senseonics Incorporated.
This ruling is significant because it succinctly reaffirmed the pleading standards that bar plaintiffs from forcing life sciences, healthcare and medical technology and device companies to endure the extraordinary cost and distraction of discovery based simply on allegations seeking to cast lawful marketing, speaker programs, and legitimate financial arrangements with physicians in a dark light.
This victory on appeal for Senseonics ended years of litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by a former employee who attempted to allege that Senseonics had paid and provided kickbacks to physicians to prescribe its new continuous glucose monitoring device which had resulted in claims to federal health insurance payors. The government had declined to intervene in the case so the case was pursued by the relator and his counsel.
K&S partner John Richter argued the case on appeal. He was joined in representing Senseonics at the District Court and Court of Appeals by Jeremy Bylund, David Mattern, Banner Banks and Zoe Beiner.