In September 2022, Pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc. agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations that it caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid by paying kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe Biogen drugs.
As stated in the DOJ release: “Biogen offered and paid remuneration, including in the form of 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.”
Yesterday in its annual report, Biogen disclosed:
“The Company has received a subpoena from the DOJ seeking information relating to our business operations in several foreign countries. The Company is also providing information relating to our business operations in several foreign countries to the SEC.”
As highlighted here, numerous Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions have been based, in whole or in part, on the enforcement theory that various foreign health care professionals are “foreign officials” under the FCPA.
