The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Justice and 28 states have reached an $8 million settlement with Omnicare Inc. resolving allegations arising from a whistle-blower suit filed under the False Claims Act. The agreement was announced today by Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick.

The settlement follows an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of New Jersey and the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. The United States alleged that Omnicare, in an effort to increase business efficiency and profit, designed and implemented an automated label verification system at certain locations that utilized a less specific drug code – known as “MEDID” – during its automated Stage II pharmacist verification process, instead of the more specific National Drug Code (NDC).