On July 20, 2022, Greene LLP announced that Biogen, Inc. reached an agreement to pay $900 million to resolve claims brought by a former employee that Biogen unlawfully paid kickbacks to physicians and other healthcare professionals, in violation of the False Claims Act. Greene LLP represented the former employee in the qui tam case, in which the federal government did not intervene.
While employed at Biogen, the relator reported concerns about Biogen paying improper kickbacks to the compliance department, which did not take any corrective action. Then, in 2012, the relator went to the United States government, stating his belief that Biogen was improperly paying kickbacks to some of its largest prescribers, to discourage them from prescribing Biogen’s competitors products.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asked the relator to record conversations with Biogen employees that could help to substantiate his allegations. The recordings helped to confirm that Biogen was deliberately giving “substantial monetary and non-monetary compensation to some of its most important prescribers to influence their prescribing.”
In April 2012, the relator – through his counsel – filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts under the federal False Claims Act and the false claims acts of several states, alleging that Biogen knowingly paid its largest prescribers for services Biogen did not need (and never intended...
Athena Construction Group Inc. must pay about $1 million for violating the False Claims Act by making misrepresentations about its eligibility to receive contracts set aside for HUBZone companies,...