A network of mail-order pharmacies, wholesalers and patient service organizations affiliated with the largest self-proclaimed Pentecostal sect in the United States has been accused of defrauding pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly of more than $200 million through a multiyear kickback scheme centered on the diabetes drug Trulicity.
In a federal lawsuit filed this week in Miami, Lilly’s lawyers accuse the Florida-based mail-order pharmacy Drug Place and several other companies (as well as individually named defendants) of operating “under the guise of a large-scale ‘prescription cost-sharing program’ for members of the Church of God in Christ.”
“Lilly brought this lawsuit to stop fraud and protect patient access to medicines,” a company spokesperson told Fierce in an emailed statement.
“As alleged in the complaint, Drug Place, Galaxy Pharmacy, and their co-conspirators submitted hundreds of thousands of kickback claims that falsely claimed Trulicity was delivered to patients, when in fact they resold the drug on the secondary market through affiliated wholesalers,” the spokesperson continued. “Upon learning that the defendants had been discovered, Drug Place closed its Nashville dispensary and began liquidating its assets, an action consistent with covering its tracks.”
Although the various entities targeted in the lawsuit allegedly performed different roles, including church-related payers, pharmacy benefit managers, and pharmacies exclusively for program participants, the defendants “shared overlapping ownership, control, and addresses,” Lilly alleges in the lawsuit.
Additionally, the company’s complaint alleges that the owners and managers of these companies, who are named in the lawsuit, “have previously engaged in a series of long-running health care fraud schemes.”
Mr. Lilly is seeking a temporary restraining order from a federal district court to prevent the plan from continuing. The company is also seeking “full compensation for the unfair kickbacks” it paid under the scheme, as well as an award and damages for profits that the defendants claim were “illegally obtained.”
The Church of God in Christ is mentioned frequently in Lilly’s filing, but it is not named as a direct defendant. Nevertheless, the church issued a public statement defending itself this week, confirming that several parties named in the lawsuit are “affiliated with our church.”
“The Church of God in Christ has no involvement in the conduct alleged in the complaint,” the statement said. “The Church did not knowingly participate in, approve of, or condone any of the wrongdoing described in the lawsuit.”
Lilly alleges that the companies and individuals involved in the scheme purchased “large quantities” of Trulicity through drug place affiliated pharmacies in Florida and Tennessee, then sought kickbacks from Lilly and filtered those claims “through a series of intermediaries.” Lilly claims that the companies are not actually dosing patients with “anything close to the amount of Trulicity they claim,” and describes the “vast majority” of prescription and usage statistics from the companies as “fictional.”
Instead, Drugplace and its brethren resell Lilly’s diabetes drugs on the secondary market to pharmaceutical wholesalers, according to Lilly’s legal team.
Lilly suggested that more than $200 million was defrauded through the scheme, and without naming specific drug companies, he claimed that the companies suing “defrauded other drug companies as well.”
Before the current rebate and resale scheme was introduced, Lilly had a “direct contractual relationship with DrugPlace,” but the pharmaceutical giant said it ended this relationship after discovering “serious” concerns with its partner’s prescription levels and rebate data.
Nevertheless, DrugPlace and its allies “hidden their kickback fraud scheme for years by filing claims through intermediaries that obscured the source of claims and by repeatedly switching to different intermediaries,” Lilly’s lawsuit states.
Lilly said DrugPlace operates its Florida and Tennessee locations as one company and claims to be a mail-order pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management company for a cost-share program run by another defendant, Community Health. According to Lilly’s complaint, Community Health alleges that the church is an affiliate of the Church of Christ, which is responsible for “patient recruitment and administration of the church’s prescription cost-sharing program.”
Trulicity, first approved for type 2 diabetes in 2014, is no longer the main sales driver for Lilly that it once was, as the company’s GIP/GLP-1 drug tirzepatide plays a central role in the same indication, as well as in obesity.
While still driving sales of blockbuster products, profits from Trulicity have been declining in recent years, falling to $2.9 billion in the U.S. in 2025 (PDF), down from $3.369 billion in Lilly’s domestic market in 2024 and $5.4 billion the year before.
