Bristol-Myers Squibb Company will pay over $515 million to resolve charges of illegal drug marketing and pricing practices, according to a U.S. Dept. of Justice press release dated September 28, 2007.
Among the practices that the government alleged were that BMS paid illegal remuneration to physicians and other health care providers to induce them to purchase BMS drugs; that BMS subsidiary Apothecon paid illegal remuneration to induce its retail pharmacy and wholesaler customers to purchase its products; that BMS promoted the sale of Abilify for off-label uses; and that both BMS and Apothecon set fraudulent and inflated prices for drugs, knowing that federal health care programs established reimbursement rates based on those prices.
The allegations originated in seven qui tam actions brought under the False Claims Act.