Pharma Biggie Hit With $125M Penalty For Illegal Kickbacks To Doctors, Falsified Insurance Forms

A subsidiary of multibillion-dollar international pharmaceuticals company Allergan has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of healthcare fraud and pay $125 million to close the books on criminal and civil liability claims tied to the subsidiary’s illegal marketing activities for seven different name-brand prescription drugs.

Warner Chilcott USA Sales LLC (whose connection to Allergen we’ll get to later) has agreed to plead guilty in federal court to felony criminal charges of paying kickbacks to physicians to get them to prescribe the company’s drugs. Warner Chilcott was also caught manipulating prior authorizations to induce insurance companies to pay for prescriptions of osteoporosis drug Atelvia that the insurers may not have otherwise paid for. To top it all of, the company also made unsubstantiated marketing claims on another osteo med, Actonel.

While the company won’t be going to jail, former Warner Chilcott President W. Carl Reichel might be. The erstwhile exec was arrested today in Boston, and according to a newly unsealed indictment [PDF] has been charged with conspiring to pay kickbacks to physicians.