The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined a growing list of federal circuit courts to adopt the “at least one purpose” rule in cases involving the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), McGuireWoods’ Michael Podberesky, Timothy Fry and Micaela Enger wrote in a Feb. 20, 2025, article in Westlaw Today. The analysis was originally posted on The FCA Insider, a McGuireWoods blog.
In United States ex rel. Camburn v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., the whistleblower alleged that Novartis violated the AKS and the False Claims Act by paying lavish speakers’ fees to physicians as a reward for prescribing a drug sold by Novartis. A district court dismissed the lawsuit, but the Second Circuit remanded the claims related to the speakers’ fees, adopting the rule that Camburn needed to prove only that “at least one purpose” of the program was to fraudulently induce doctors to write prescriptions.
“As the at least one purpose rule continues to be adopted by more courts interpreting alleged AKS violations, defendants will continue to be put on the defensive regarding the validity of their payments to providers,” the authors wrote.