Biogen agrees to pay $900 million for allegedly improper doctor payments

biogenic Inc. has agreed to pay $900 million to settle allegations that it bribed doctors to get them to prescribe the company’s drugs, the Justice Department announced Monday.

From 2009 to March 2014, Biogen allegedly used speaker and consulting fees and other compensation to persuade doctors to prescribe the company’s multiple sclerosis drugs such as Avonex and Tecfidera, resulting in payments fraudulent by Medicare and Medicaid for drugs, according to a federal whistleblower. lawsuit filed in 2012 by former Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak. The suit was unsealed in 2015