February 8, 2008 Merck & Co. has agreed to pay $650 million dollars to settle qui tam claims filed by a former company employee, H. Dean Steinke, a district sales manager for Merck. The allegation of the case were that Merck provided its drugs Vioxx, Zocor and Pepcid to medical providers, while failing to disclose such discounts or rebates to Medicaid, thereby causing Medicaid to overpay for the drugs. As a result of having filed a qui tam action to expose these allegations, Mr. Steinke is expected to receive up to $68 Million Dollars, as a reward. See U.S. Dept of Justice Press Release 1/2/96
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