12th Feb 2015 06:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Wednesday agreed to pay the US government USD7.9 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme in violation of the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced. AstraZeneca markets and sells pharmaceutical products in the US, including a drug sold under the trade name Nexium.
The settlement resolves allegations that AstraZeneca agreed to provide remuneration to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager, in exchange for Medco maintaining Nexium's "sole and exclusive" status on certain Medco formularies and through other marketing activities related to those Medco formularies.
The US alleged that AstraZeneca provided some or all of the remuneration to Medco through price concessions on drugs other than Nexium, namely on Prilosec, Toprol XL and Plendil.
The US contended that this kickback arrangement between AstraZeneca and Medco violated the Federal Anti-Kickback statute, and thereby caused the submission of false or fraudulent claims for Nexium to the Retiree Drug Subsidy Program.
The civil settlement resolves a lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provision of the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens with knowledge of false claims to bring civil actions on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery. The lawsuit was filed by former AstraZeneca employees Paul DiMattia and F. Folger Tuggle, who will collectively receive USD1.422 million.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Related Shares:
Astrazeneca