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# Galena Bio Pays Fine in Kickback Case
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/galena-bio-pays-fine-in-kickback-case/
- Published: 2017-09-11T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:48:14.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5139586

Galena Biopharma has agreed to pay the federal government more than $7.55 million to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that it paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe its fentanyl-based drug Abstral. The government contends that the company provided 85 free meals to doctors and staff from a single, high-prescribing practice; paid doctors $5,000, and speakers $6,000 to attend a Galena “advisory board;” and paid $92,000 to a physician-owned pharmacy under a performance-based rebate agreement, according to a Department of Justice [press release](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/galena-biopharma-inc-pay-more-755-million-resolve-alleged-false-claims-related-opioid-drug?ref=fdaweb.com). “Two of the doctors who received remuneration from Galena were tried, convicted and later [sentenced](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdal/pr/dr-couch-and-dr-ruan-sentenced-240-and-252-months-federal-prison-running-massive-pill?ref=fdaweb.com) to prison in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama following a jury trial of, among other counts, offenses relating to their prescriptions of Abstral,” it says.