Eli Lilly returns to Indianapolis the week it sues church leaders over $200M rebate scheme

Eli Lilly’s Gulfstream G500 (N307EL) departed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on the afternoon of May 22 and arrived at its Indianapolis base an hour and 24 minutes later. The flight home caps a week of heavy Washington travel for the company—its jets landed in the DC area three times between May 19 and May 22, per flight data.

The same week, Eli Lilly filed a civil lawsuit accusing four leaders of the Church of God in Christ of orchestrating a $200 million drug rebate fraud, as first reported by Christianity Today. The suit alleges the defendants bought large quantities of the diabetes drug Trulicity through a pharmacy, claimed fraudulent rebates by saying the medication was given to church members, then resold the drugs on the secondary market.

The trip fits a pattern of frequent Eli Lilly flights to Washington, where the company has lobbied heavily on drug pricing and GLP-1 reimbursement policy. Earlier this year, CEO David Ricks attended White House meetings on manufacturing investment, and the company’s jets have landed in DC more than 120 times across the industry this year, according to Endpoints News. This week, the purpose was legal—but the destination remains the same intersection of pharma and power.