By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday refused to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit accusing Novartis AG of civil fraud for having conducted two illegal kickback schemes to boost sales of drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan rejected the argument by the Swiss drugmaker's Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp unit that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the government had failed to show how it had been defrauded. McMahon, however, invited Novartis by June 13 to seek dismissal on a different ground, that the claims were legally inadequate, saying she needed to more fully review that issue. The government accused Novartis of having from 2005 to 2013 induced at least 20 pharmacies to switch thousands of kidney transplant patients to its immunosuppressant drug Myfortic by providing kickbacks, in the form of discounts and rebates.
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