Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces $370 Million Civil Fraud Settlement Against Novartis Pharmaceuticals For Kickback Scheme Involving High-Priced Prescription Drugs, Along With $20 Million Forfeiture Of Proceeds From The Scheme

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Diego Rodriguez, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), Gregory E. Demske, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS-OIG"), and Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of HHS-OIG's New York Regional Office, announced a $390 million settlement against NOVARTIS Pharmaceuticals Corp. ("NOVARTIS") in a civil fraud lawsuit based on claims that NOVARTIS gave kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in return for recommending two of its drugs, Exjade and Myfortic. The settlement resolves claims under the federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., and numerous state false claims act claims. The settlement also provides for resolution of claims against NOVARTIS under the federal civil forfeiture statute, 18 U.S.C. § 981 et seq. This is the third settlement in this lawsuit - in January 2014 and April 2015, two specialty pharmacies, Bioscrip, Inc. ("Bioscrip") and Accredo Health Group ("Accredo"), agreed to pay a total of $75 million to resolve federal and state claims against them based on the same allegations. Together with today's settlement, the federal and state governments will recover $465 million in total based on the kickback allegations in this lawsuit.

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