Drugs

Gilead Pays $202 Million Over Kickbacks Scheme

Gilead Sciences has agreed to pay $202 million to settle a U.S. government civil fraud lawsuit and resolve claims that the company offered and paid kickbacks (e.g., honoraria payments, meals, and travel expenses) to healthcare practitioners who spoke at or attended Gilead speaker events to induce them to prescribe its HIV drugs.

Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said this about the settlement: “For years, Gilead unlawfully sought to increase sales of its HIV drugs by using its speaker programs to funnel kickbacks to doctors. As alleged, Gilead spent tens of millions of dollars on these programs, including over $20 million in speaking fees and millions more in exorbitant meals, alcohol and travel, all in an effort to induce doctors to prescribe Gilead’s HIV drugs and drive up sales.”

The kickbacks took place from 1/2011 to 11/2017 with Gilead “holding HIV dinner programs at high-end restaurants that were wholly inappropriate for educational events; allowing attendees to attend HIV dinner programs on the exact same topic again and again and, thereby, obtain free lavish meals for events that held minimal educational value for them; and paying for HIV speakers to travel to speak at desirable destinations — at times at the HIV speaker’s request,” a Department of Justice (DoJ) release says. “Further, Gilead’s compliance program failed to prevent these improper practices, even though Gilead knew that it had to comply with the AKS [Anti-Kickback Statute] and the company’s own data should have put Gilead on notice of many of these abuses.”

DoJ also noted that it has joined a private whistleblower lawsuit related to the kickbacks that had been filed under seal pursuant to the False Claims Act.

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Gupta Raises Concerns About Overton’s Independence, Ideology

Overton Confirmation Remains Uncertain After Senate Hearing

FDA Classifies Boston Scientific Imager II Catheter Recall as Class I

FDA Approves Gazyva for Childhood-Onset Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome