Pfizer to Pay Nearly $60M Over KickbacksPfizer to Pay Nearly $60M Over Kickbacks

Payment is to resolve charges that a company Pfizer acquired defrauded Medicare and other healthcare programs.

Kristen Kazarian, Managing Editor

January 27, 2025

2 Min Read
The anti‑kickback statute prohibits offering or paying anything of value for services or items.
The anti‑kickback statute prohibits offering or paying anything of value to induce the referral of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.Simon Marcus Taplin/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Pfizer must pay $59,746,277 million to resolve allegations that, prior to Pfizer’s acquisition of the company, Biohaven knowingly caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and other federal health care programs by paying kickbacks to health care providers to induce prescriptions of Biohaven’s drug Nurtec ODT.

The Justice Department said that from March 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals violated the False Claims Act by providing speaker honoraria and meals at high-end restaurants to doctors, to induce them to prescribe Nurtec more often.

Pfizer ended the Nurtec speaker programs after paying $11.5 billion to buy Biohaven in October 2022. "Patients deserve to know that their doctor is prescribing medications based on their doctor's medical judgment, and not as a result of financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies," said Trini Ross, US Attorney for the Western District of New York.

The anti‑kickback statute prohibits offering or paying anything of value to induce the referral of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and other federal health care programs. The statute is intended to ensure that medical providers’ judgments are not compromised by improper financial incentives.

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Patrica Frattasio, a former sales representative at Biohaven. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. The qui tam case is captioned U.S. ex rel. Patricia Frattasio v. Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., No. 6:21-CV-06539 (W.D.N.Y.). Approximately $50.2 million of the settlement constitutes the federal portion of the recovery and approximately $9.5 million constitutes a recovery for State Medicaid programs. Frattasio will receive approximately $8.4 million as her share of the federal recovery in this case.   

Related:Ardena Acquires Catalent’s US Drug Manufacturing Facility

In October 2024, Teva Pharmaceutics paid $450 million for kickbacks. Between 2006- 2017, Teva manipulated the co-pay foundation assistance system by conspiring with multiple third parties to direct its supposed charitable payments specifically to patients taking its own multiple sclerosis drug.

About the Author

Kristen Kazarian

Managing Editor

Kristen Kazarian has been a writer and editor for more than three decades. She has worked at several consumer magazines and B2B publications in the fields of food and beverage, packaging, processing, women's interest, local news, health and nutrition, fashion and beauty, automotive, and IT.

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