Biogen Pays $900 Million in Whistleblower Suit

Biogen has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid by paying kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe Biogen drugs. The whistleblower (qui tam) lawsuit was brought by former Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak, who alleged that the company paid kickbacks to prescribers of its multiple sclerosis drugs. It did this by holding speaker programs from 1/2009 to 3/2014 under which it “offered and paid remuneration, including speaker honoraria, speaker training fees, consulting fees and meals, to health care professionals who spoke at or attended Biogen’s speaker programs, speaker training meetings or consultant programs to induce them to prescribe the drugs Avonex, Tysabri and Tecfidera in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute,” a Justice Department release contends.