GILEAD SCIENCES, INC. AGREES TO PAY $202 MILLION

TO SETTLE WHISTLEBLOWER CASE ALLEGING

VIOLATIONS OF FALSE CLAIMS ACT AND ANTI-KICKBACK STATUTE

(April 29, 2025)  Gilead Sciences, Inc. has agreed to pay $202 million to the United States and several states to settle a False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit filed by Willens & Scarvalone LLP on behalf of its client, Dr. Paul Bellman.

Dr. Bellman’s complaint alleged that Gilead engaged in a nationwide scheme to boost the sales of six prescription drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS by paying kickbacks worth millions of dollars to hundreds of physicians and other healthcare providers.  These kickbacks took many forms, including speaker fees paid to doctors to lead repetitive, unnecessary promotional programs; lavish dinners at upscale restaurants; and travel to popular vacation spots. 

Today the Government joined Dr. Bellman’s action after completing an investigation that began in August 2016, when Dr. Bellman filed the lawsuit.  The Government’s complaint confirms that Gilead violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by using kickbacks to induce or reward physicians for prescribing six of Gilead’s HIV products:  Complera, Stribild, Genvoya, Odefsey, Descovy, and Biktarvy.  In settling the action and paying substantial damages, Gilead has admitted the core kickback allegations raised by Dr. Bellman nearly nine years ago. 

As Dr. Bellman’s complaint alleges, this illegal conduct not only undermined physicians’ ability to exercise their own independent and impartial judgment when making prescription decisions.  It also threatened the health and safety of HIV/AIDS patients.  Gilead’s kickbacks to targeted physicians induced them to switch patients from affordable, well-established drug cocktails that successfully controlled the virus to Gilead’s newest combination drugs that often cost more than $40,000 per year for each patient.  Because many of these prescriptions were billed to Medicare and Medicaid, the American taxpayers paid the bill for Gilead’s illegal conduct.

 “While the Government has caught other pharmaceutical companies engaged in similar kickback schemes, Gilead’s conduct, as alleged here, is particularly shocking.  HIV is a potentially fatal disease that targets a vulnerable patient population.  When it paid doctors to switch their patients to expensive drugs like Stribild, Genvoya or Biktarvy, Gilead introduced new and often unnecessary risks, putting profits ahead of patients’ health,” said Jonathan A. Willens of Willens & Scarvalone.

Dr. Bellman is a physician who devoted his career to the care and treatment of patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.  From early in the epidemic in the mid-1980s, Dr. Bellman ran his own medical practice and cared for thousands of patients.  He is a widely respected expert in HIV treatment.  Dr. Bellman saw first-hand how Gilead’s kickbacks corrupted the well-established treatment practices of HIV physicians in New York City, and his research established that the corruption was impacting patients across the country.  His complaint made it clear that Gilead’s new combination drugs risked exposing specific patients and subpopulations of patients to health hazards, such as kidney damage from Stribild, that were unnecessary for effective, safe HIV treatment.

Heidi A. Wendel, a lawyer with deep experience in healthcare fraud, provided invaluable assistance as co-counsel to Willens & Scarvalone beginning in 2017.  Jennifer Verkamp and Chandra Napora of Morgan Verkamp LLC joined Dr. Bellman’s team in 2023 to assist in counsel’s successful efforts to persuade the Government to intervene in the lawsuit.

Willens & Scarvalone is a law firm whose practice focuses on representation of qui tam relators in False Claims Act lawsuits.  The firm also represents whistleblowers in connection with other federal whistleblower programs. 

The False Claims Act allows private citizens to sue entities that are defrauding the government and recover funds on the government’s behalf.  Under the Act and analogous state laws, the whistleblower is entitled to receive between 15 percent to 25 percent of the government’s recovery.

 The case is captioned United States ex rel. Bellman v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., 16 Civ. 6228 (PAE) (S.D.N.Y.).

The Justice Department’s press release is here.

 Contact for further information: 

 Jonathan A. Willens and Edward Scarvalone

Willens & Scarvalone LLP

jawillens@willensscarvalone.com