Several pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pay a combined $421 million to settle allegations that they schemed to inflate the prices of drugs to take advantage of federal health care programs, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The DOJ said Abbott Laboratories Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc. and Roxane Laboratories Inc., plus affiliated business entities, were accused under the False Claims Act.
“These settlements stem from lawsuits in which we’ve alleged these companies engaged in a complicated and complex scheme to market their drugs through an unlawful pricing arrangement that amounted to kicbacks funded by taxpayer dollars,” Assistant Attorney General Tony West of the Civil Division said during a news conference at DOJ headquarters.
West said in a news release that the DOJ has now recouped more than $1.8 billion from drug makers accused of similar price-fixing schemes. The DOJ said Roxane would pay $280 million, Abbott $126 million and Braun $14.7 million.
Attorney General Eric Holder and the other top DOJ officials have made efforts to root out swindlers a top priority.
West said the DOJ has now recovered more than $9 billion since January 2009Â from the resolutions of fraud cases against alleged swindlers, including those in the mortgage and government procurement industries. The Assistant Attorney General said the amount recovered is the largest two-year sum ever recouped by the DOJ.
“Together, these cases represent an aggressive, coordinated and sustained effort at the federal level to hold perpetrators of fraud accountable, be they large companies or individuals – and over the last two years we have done just that,” West said.
Andrew Ramonas contributed reporting.
This story has been updated.
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