Eli Lilly accuses Church of God in Christ bishops and DrugPlace of Trulicity rebate fraud

Eli Lilly has filed a civil lawsuit against several bishops from a major Pentecostal church and a Florida-based mail-order pharmacy, accusing them of orchestrating a long-running fraud scheme to siphon over $200 million in rebates from its diabetes medication, Trulicity. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleges that the defendants engaged in a coordinated effort to misrepresent the distribution of the drug, leading to fraudulent financial gains.

According to the complaint, DrugPlace, the mail-order pharmacy, purchased large quantities of Trulicity over several years through authorized distributors. The company claimed these drugs were dispensed to members of the Church of God in Christ, a global Pentecostal movement with millions of adherents. However, Lilly alleges that DrugPlace simultaneously sold the medication on the secondary market while collecting rebates, effectively exploiting the drugmaker’s rebate program for profit.

The lawsuit also names Community Health Initiative, an organization linked to the Church of God in Christ, as a key player in the scheme. It claims that Community Health acted as the pharmacy benefit manager for the program, handling prescription claims and rebate negotiations. Both DrugPlace and Community Health operate from the same address in Tennessee, according to the filing.

Lilly alleges that the organizations used members of the Church of God in Christ to support false rebate claims. The company claims many of the patients associated with these claims either did not exist or could not be verified. The Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tennessee, is not named as a defendant, though several of its bishops are accused in the suit.

The alleged fraud has been ongoing for at least six years, with Lilly discovering the scheme in 2025 through a data analysis of rebate claims. The analysis revealed an unusual pattern: every Trulicity prescription submitted through the program reflected the same quantity and 30-day supply period, with minimal refills or claim reversals. Additionally, the rebate claims were limited to Trulicity, rather than a broader range of drugs typically associated with legitimate patient populations.

To justify the volume of Trulicity orders, DrugPlace claimed the Church of God in Christ had 7 million members, with 2.5 million qualifying for the Community Health program. However, a Pew Religion in America 2025 survey cited in the complaint estimates the total number of members of the Church of God in Christ to be approximately 1.9 million. This discrepancy raises questions about the validity of the claims used to secure the rebates.

Lilly also alleges that other pharmaceutical manufacturers have been similarly defrauded in this rebate scheme, though the company does not name them in the filing. The lawsuit seeks to hold DrugPlace and Community Health accountable for their alleged actions, highlighting the potential misuse of charitable and religious structures for financial gain.

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