Roche sues U.S. executives in fight over diabetes test strips

Roche is seeking damages and compensation in a U.S. lawsuit against former executives of a Utah-based company, the Swiss drugmaker's latest case targeting what it calls fraudulent schemes involving its diabetes test strips. Roche has filed several lawsuits in U.S. federal court in which it alleges individuals and companies obtained low-priced diabetes test strips meant for mail-order customers, only to re-direct them for sale via pharmacies where higher prices allowed them to profit from the difference. In a pending U.S. lawsuit in Michigan, Roche alleges executives at medical supply companies used a similar test-strip flipping scheme to cheat it out of $84 million. In Utah, where Alliance Medical filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 after a raid by federal agents seeking evidence of potential healthcare fraud, Roche contends Smith and others from 2011 to 2017 sought fraudulent reimbursements for 1.84 million 50-count boxes of Roche diabetes test strips.