The U.S. is asking Novartis AG to provide recordsof about 80,000 "sham" events in which the government says doctorswere wined and dined so they would prescribe the company’scardiovascular drugs to their patients.

The Swiss drugmaker and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney are engagedin a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleges Novartis provided illegal kickbacks to healthcare providers through bogus educational programs at high-endrestaurants and sports bars where the drugs were barelydiscussed.

In a filing Friday, the U.S. said it needs Novartis to provideinformation to support its allegation that the company defraudedfederal health care programs of hundreds of millions of dollarsover a decade by inducing doctors to prescribe its medicationsthrough sham speaker events.

"The requested documents go to the core issues in this case:whether educational materials were provided at these events; whichdoctors actually attended the events; how much money was spent onmeals and honoraria; and indeed, most fundamentally, whether theunderlying documentation shows that a particular event actuallytook place," the government said in its court filing.

That filing came in response to a March 22 request by Novartisto the judge, seeking a hearing because the company says the U.S.has "exploded" the size of the case by demanding information aboutas many as 80,000 promotional events set up by its salespeople.

Representatives of Basel-based Novartis didn’t immediatelyrespond to an e-mail sent Saturday seeking comment on thegovernment’s filing.

Last year Novartis agreed to pay $390 million to settle a lawsuit in which the U.S.government claimed the Swiss company paid kickbacks to pharmaciesto boost sales of some of its prescription drugs. The companyneither admitted nor denied liability.

The case is U.S. v. Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp., 11-CV-0071,U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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