Biogen Agrees to Pay $900 Million in Drug Kickbacks Settlement, Denies Wrongdoing

Pharmaceutical giant Biogen has agreed to pay $900 million to settle claims that it paid kickbacks to physicians to encourage them to prescribe its multiple sclerosis drugs, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in 2012 by former Biogen employee turned whistleblower, Michael Bawduniak.
Bawduniak sued Biogen under the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to sue companies that they allege defrauded the federal government, on behalf of the government.
Such lawsuits, if successful, allow the private party to receive a portion of any recovery.
The DOJ said the former employee will receive approximately 29.6 percent of the federal proceeds from the settlement, amounting to $266.4 million….