Pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 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 settlement resolves a lawsuit filed and litigated by former Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak against Biogen under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit a private party (known as a relator) to file a lawsuit on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery.
In his lawsuit filed in the District of Massachusetts, Bawduniak alleged that Biogen paid kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe the company’s multiple sclerosis drugs. According to the relator’s complaint, from Jan. 1, 2009, through March 18, 2014, Biogen held programs through which it offered and paid remuneration, including speaker honoraria, speaker training fees, consulting fees and meals, to healthcare 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.
