Public Citizen v. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Citizen made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for copies of annual compliance reports submitted by Pfizer Inc. and Purdue Pharma L.P. to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The companies submitted those reports pursuant to separate Corporate Integrity Agreements that they entered with OIG in 2004 and 2007, respectively. HHS refused to disclose the bulk of the compliance reports in response to Public Citizen’s FOIA request. Public Citizen filed a FOIA lawsuit against HHS in September 2011. Pfizer and Purdue Pharma intervened as defendants in the litigation. In October 2013, the district court granted Public Citizen’s motion for summary judgment in part, granted the government’s motion for summary judgment in part, and denied both parties’ motions for summary judgment with respect to other categories of records. A second round of summary judgment briefing followed. The court granted the remainder of the government’s motion for summary judgment.