Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Pay $421.2 Million to Settle False Claims Act Cases

In Past Two Years, Civil Division & U.S. Attorneys Have Recovered More Than $9 Billion in Cases Alleging False Claims and Fraud Against the Government

WASHINGTON — Abbott Laboratories Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc. and Roxane Laboratories Inc. n/k/a Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. and affiliated entities have agreed to pay $421 million to settle False Claims Act allegations, the Justice Department announced today. These settlements resolve claims by the United States that the defendants engaged in a scheme to report false and inflated prices for numerous pharmaceutical products knowing that federal healthcare programs relied on those reported prices to set payment rates. The actual sales prices for the products were far less than what defendants reported.

The difference between the resulting inflated government payments and the actual price paid by healthcare providers for a drug is referred to as the “spread.â€