Eli Lilly says it has uncovered a long-running scheme to steal greater than $200 million in rebates from its diabetes medicine, Trulicity, accusing a number of bishops at a serious Pentecostal church of fraud.
The corporate filed a 66-page civil lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Courtroom in Miami.
Here is how the scheme labored, in accordance with Lilly: A Florida mail-order pharmacy known as DrugPlace purchased giant portions of Trulicity for years via licensed distributors, claiming the medicine have been distributed to sufferers who have been members of the church. However Lilly alleges that in actuality DrugPlace offered the Trulicity on the secondary market on the similar time it was gathering fraudulent rebates from Lilly.
In accordance with the lawsuit, DrugPlace labored with Neighborhood Well being Initiative, a corporation affiliated with the Church of God in Christ that purportedly helped church members receive costly pharmaceuticals at a lowered value. Lilly alleges DrugPlace served as this system’s pharmacy profit supervisor, or PBM, dealing with prescription drug claims and rebate negotiations with drugmakers on this system’s behalf.
DrugPlace and Neighborhood Well being function from the identical handle in Tennessee, in accordance with the lawsuit.
Lilly alleges the organizations used members of the Church of God in Christ to help false rebate claims and mentioned lots of the sufferers tied to these submissions both didn’t exist or couldn’t be verified.
The church, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, describes itself on its web site as a “world motion of Pentecostal religion” with tens of millions of members worldwide. The church itself is just not named as a defendant, although a number of of its bishops are accused within the go well with.
The scheme has been occurring a minimum of six years, Lilly mentioned within the submitting. It discovered of the alleged fraud in 2025, it mentioned, via an information evaluation of rebate claims.
The grievance says that evaluation revealed an uncommon sample: Each Trulicity prescription submitted via this system mirrored the same amount and 30-day provide interval, with virtually no refills or declare reversals. As well as, the rebate claims concerned solely Trulicity, somewhat than a broader vary of medicine usually seen in respectable affected person populations.
To justify the Trulicity quantity order, Lilly mentioned, DrugPlace claimed the church had 7 million members, 2.5 million of whom certified for enrollment within the Neighborhood Well being program. However in accordance with a Pew Faith in America 2025 survey cited within the grievance, the overall variety of members of the Church of God in Christ is estimated to be about 1.9 million people.
Different pharmaceutical producers even have been defrauded on this rebate scheme, Lilly mentioned, with out naming them.
Lilly sued each DrugPlace and Neighborhood Well being, claiming they tremendously profited from shopping for and reselling the Trulicity as a result of they collected each the rebate funds and the proceeds after they resold every field.
Whereas the lawsuit says DrugPlace submitted rebate claims for “lots of of hundreds of packing containers of Trulicity,” it doesn’t notice how a lot the group allegedly profited from reselling the drug.
Lilly is searching for a brief restraining order and a preliminary injunction.
The corporate additionally sued church leaders who allegedly assisted in and profited from the rebate scheme: Readus C. Smith III, of Jacksonville, Florida, who’s secretary-general of well being and enterprise for the church; Jerry Maynard Sr., of Ashland Metropolis, Tennessee, a church bishop and businessman; his son Jerry Maynard II, of Nashville, Tennessee, a church pastor, enterprise marketing consultant and former member of the Metro Nashville Davidson Council; and Maynard Sr.’s daughter Misha Maynard, of Watertown, Tennessee, a church pastor.
The go well with identifies Smith as CEO of Neighborhood Well being in addition to one other firm that recruits medical doctors to offer healthcare for church members.
Maynard Sr. promoted Neighborhood Well being to church members, the go well with mentioned, and his son is its board chairman and did authorized work for DrugPlace. Misha Maynard is Neighborhood Well being’s vice chairman of operations, in accordance with the submitting.
CNBC contacted the person defendants named on this article in addition to DrugPlace, Neighborhood Well being and the church — which isn’t a defendant — however has not heard again.
As well as, the go well with names Paul Joshua Leight, co-owner and president of DrugPlace; and Kevin Michael Singer, co-owner and vice chairman of DrugPlace.
In a press release to CNBC, a Lilly spokesperson mentioned the corporate “introduced this case to cease fraud and shield sufferers’ entry to its medicines.”
“When the defendants discovered that that they had been found, DrugPlace shuttered its Nashville pharmacy and commenced liquidating property—conduct in keeping with masking its tracks,” the assertion mentioned.
