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4 ¦ JULY 20, 2020 NEWS

¦ From CONNECTICUT on PAGE 1 high-end restaurants and other
meals to have them prescribe its venues, paid exorbitant speaker
brands of cardiovascular and dia- fees to doctors who gave no mean-
betes drugs. ingful presentations, and provided
The settlement was signed off expensive meals and alcohol to
on July 1. The litigation began in doctor attendees and their guests.”
Connecticut in 2011 and the
Miller, the lead attorney on the government later became The government statement
whistleblower case, worked out continues: “For more than a de-
of the Chester office of the law involved in the matter, cade, Novartis spent hundreds of
firm, which has eight U.S. offices which ended up taking nine millions of dollars on so-called

and operations in London and years to resolve. speaker programs … that were

Italy. nothing more than bribes to get
Miller said the federal govern- doctors across the country to pre-
ment expressed interest in the scribe Novartis drugs.”
case soon after his firm filed suit No one from the U.S. Attorney’s
in 2011. The federal government Office for the Southern District of
joined the case in 2013. Miller’s firm provided per- New York, the lead prosecutors, responded to a re-
tinent information over the years, and remained quest for comment.
involved to the end. “The government kept us abreast throughout, and
“The most important information that we provid- we continued to litigate the case,” said Miller, who
ed to the government in connection with this case noted his firm spent “tens of thousands of hours on
was Mr. Bilotta’s detailed knowledge and informa- this case.”
tion regarding Novartis’ sales practices in the New The payoff for his client as a whistleblower, Miller
York metropolitan area, as supplemented by the said, is expected to be massive.
extensive work that we performed with our inves- “We expect Mr. Bilotta will receive about $100
tigators in establishing the nature of the scheme,” million because he was the whistleblower,” Miller
Miller said. “We and Mr. Bilotta literally worked on said. As for his firm, Miller said, “The attorney fees
this matter on a weekly, if not daily, basis through- we will be getting have not yet been decided. We are
out the entire pendency of the lawsuit.” still in the middle of negotiations.”
Miller said his firm “personally incurred millions The lead attorney for Novartis was Evan Chesler,
of dollars in expenses” and had a team of 30 lawyers chairman of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, based in
and other professional over the course of nine years. New York City. Chesler didn’t respond to a request
“It was a real partnership between us and the gov- for comment Tuesday.
ernment,” he said. Novartis directed media inquiries to its website,
At one point, Miller said, his client agreed to be where CEO Vas Narasimhan wrote: “Today’s settle-
wired and to attend Novartis events at the behest of ments are consistent with Novartis’ commitment to
the government. resolve and learn from legacy compliance matters,
“We were mostly holding his hand during the time We are a different company today, with new leader-
he was being wired, but we were acting as counsel ship, a stronger culture, and a more comprehensive
and protected his interest the best we could,” Miller commitment to ethics embedded at the heart of our
said. company.”
The alleged kickbacks, Miller said, were “docu- ¦

mented many times because Mr. Bilotta wore a wire. Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and
The wire showed there were bribes taking place.” analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow
Novartis, the government said in a release, or- him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at
ganized thousands of “sham educational events at 203-437-5950.

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune