{"id":3214,"date":"2026-05-26T16:23:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/?p=3214"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:23:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:23:35","slug":"major-diabetes-drug-maker-sues-over-alleged-200-million-fraud-scheme-involving-mail-order-pharmacies-and-church-affiliated-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/major-diabetes-drug-maker-sues-over-alleged-200-million-fraud-scheme-involving-mail-order-pharmacies-and-church-affiliated-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Diabetes Drug Maker Sues Over Alleged $200 Million Fraud Scheme Involving Mail-Order Pharmacies and Church-Affiliated Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, has filed a lawsuit in Miami accusing several businesses and individuals of defrauding them out of over $200 million through a years-long scam involving the diabetes<\/a> medication Trulicity. The lawsuit claims that a Florida-based mail-order pharmacy called DrugPlace, along with other companies and individuals, operated a fake program that was supposed to help people save money on prescription drugs. This program was linked to the Church of God in Christ, though the church itself is not being sued. <\/p>\n

Lilly\u2019s lawyers say that the companies involved lied about how much Trulicity was actually given to patients. Instead of using the medication as promised, they allegedly resold it on the black market through other wholesalers. When the scheme was discovered, DrugPlace reportedly closed its pharmacy in Nashville and began selling off its assets, which Lilly\u2019s lawsuit describes as an attempt to hide evidence.<\/p>\n

The companies named in the lawsuit include DrugPlace, Galaxy Pharmacy, and Community Health, which is said to be a payer and pharmacy benefit manager for the church\u2019s prescription cost-share program. Lilly argues that these companies share the same owners, management, and even addresses, making it clear they were working together. The lawsuit also states that the individuals behind these companies have a history of involvement in healthcare fraud.<\/p>\n

Lilly is asking a federal court to issue an emergency order to stop the scheme immediately. They also want the court to force the defendants to pay back all the money they received through false rebate claims, plus any profits they made from the scam and additional damages.<\/p>\n

The Church of God in Christ released a statement saying it has no knowledge of the fraud and was not involved in any wrongdoing. The church confirmed that some of the companies and individuals named in the lawsuit are connected to it but stressed that it did not authorize, know about, or support the alleged illegal activities.<\/p>\n

According to Lilly, the companies bought massive amounts of Trulicity through DrugPlace-affiliated pharmacies in Florida and Tennessee. They then falsely claimed that the medication was dispensed to patients to receive rebates from Lilly. In reality, Lilly says, the companies did not give the medication to patients as promised but instead sold it to other wholesalers. The lawsuit claims that most of the claims about prescribing and usage numbers provided by these companies were completely made up.<\/p>\n

Lilly says this scheme cost them over $200 million and suggests that the defendants may have defrauded other drug companies in similar ways, though it does not name those companies. Before uncovering this scheme, Lilly had a direct contract with DrugPlace, but they ended the relationship after finding serious problems with the company\u2019s prescription and rebate data. Despite this, the companies allegedly continued their fraud for years by using intermediaries to hide the true source of their claims.<\/p>\n

DrugPlace, which operates out of Florida and Tennessee, claims to be a mail-order pharmacy and pharmacy benefit manager for a cost-share program run by Community Health. Community Health, in turn, is described in the lawsuit as an entity affiliated with the Church of God in Christ responsible for recruiting patients and managing the church\u2019s prescription cost-share program.<\/p>\n

Trulicity, which was first approved in 2014 to treat Type 2 diabetes, is no longer Lilly\u2019s top-selling drug. A newer medication, tirzepatide, which treats both diabetes and obesity, has taken over as the company\u2019s biggest revenue driver. While Trulicity still makes billions of dollars annually, its sales have been declining in recent years, dropping from $5.4 billion in 2023 to $2.9 billion in 2025 in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, has filed a lawsuit in Miami accusing several businesses and individuals of defrauding them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pharmaceutical-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}