In an article published in Bloomberg Law, Phillips & Cohen attorney Stephen Hasegawa weighed in on the prospects of an anticipated legal battle over the Department of Justice’s expected attempt to dismiss a False Claims Act case brought against biopharmaceutical company Gileads Sciences Inc.
The fight would probably boil down to whether [Judge for U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California] Chen agrees with the DOJ that eliminating the burden of the case so the FDA can focus its resources on other matters is a valid governmental purpose, said plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen Hasegawa of Phillips & Cohen LLP.
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It is hard to predict how Chen might rule given his decision against the [whistleblowers] on the merits in 2015, and his ruling against the DOJ in Academy Mortgage, Hasegawa said. “If it comes to it, my guess is that the government will pull out the stops to show the court that it investigated the Gilead case thoroughly, to distinguish it from Academy Mortgage,” he said.
“Beyond that, we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of showing the government makes and whether it’s enough to convince the judge,” Hasegawa said.
Read the article “Gilead Whistleblowers may be well placed to fight DOJ dismissal,” in full on Bloomberg Law’s website (subscription required).