United States v. Abbott Laboratories

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al. ex rel. Case No.: 20cv286-W (MSB) Everest Principals, LLC,

DISCOVERY ORDER

Plaintiffs, [ECF NOS. 103, 104] v. 14 ABBOTT LABORATORIES, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 This is a qui tam case, wherein Plaintiff-Relator, Everest Principals, LLC (“Relator”) maintains causes of action against Defendants Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., Abbott Vascular, Inc., and Abbott Laboratories, Inc. (collectively “Abbott” or “Defendants”) on behalf of the United States of America (“U.S.”) and several states for violations of the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) and analogous state laws. (See ECF No. 85 at 6.) Relator’s primary argument is that Defendants, who sell a cardiac device, provided illegal kickbacks to two types of physicians to induce use of Defendants’ device: those who saw cardiac patients and were targeted by Defendants to make referrals to the second type (“referring physicians”), and those who performed the…