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Abbott Laboratories settles kickbacks case for $25 million

Abbott allegedly used gift baskets and gift cards to encourage prescriptions.

U. S. Attorney William M. McSwain said Friday that pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie Inc. will pay $25 million to resolve allegations that they employed kickbacks and unlawful methods of marketing and promotion to induce physicians to prescribe the drug TriCor. Here, McSwain speaks in support of Philadelphia Police to commanders and recruits at the Police Academy in April.
U. S. Attorney William M. McSwain said Friday that pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie Inc. will pay $25 million to resolve allegations that they employed kickbacks and unlawful methods of marketing and promotion to induce physicians to prescribe the drug TriCor. Here, McSwain speaks in support of Philadelphia Police to commanders and recruits at the Police Academy in April.Read moreDAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer

Abbott Laboratories and its spin-off, AbbVie Inc., agreed to a $25 million federal settlement over allegations that it gave kickbacks to doctors to get them to prescribe the drug TriCor, between 2006 and 2008, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Abbott allegedly used gift baskets and gift cards to encourage prescriptions, compensated health care providers for consulting services and speaking engagements, and promoted the drug for uses it didn't have FDA approval for, including to treat cardiac health risk. A former Abbott sales rep brought the suit as a whistleblower complaint in 2009. The companies did not admit any wrongdoing.