A whistleblower says Cephalon used CME, “bogus ‘market research surveys’ and Advisory Board meetings” to disseminate an off-label message about Treanda to prescribers.

The firm also illegally promoted opioid analgesic Fentora for non-cancer pain, the plaintiff claims, by using its general, rather than oncology, sales force.

The 2009 actions, which boosted costs to government programs, are particularly troubling because, at the time, Cephalon would have been operating under a corporate integrity agreement, signed in 2008, in which it pledged to cease all off-label marketing, and settled off-label marketing charges on three other drugs for $425 ­million.