UNITED STATES: US Judge Orders Serono to Pay $704 Million to Settle Fraud Allegations

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

UNITED STATES: US Judge Orders Serono to Pay $704 Million to Settle Fraud Allegations

Associated Press (12.15.05) - Friday, December 16, 2005

On Thursday, Rockland, Mass.-based Serono Laboratories pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal conspiracy involving fraud when it offered kickbacks to doctors to bolster lackluster sales of its AIDS wasting drug Serostim. The settlement of the case was announced in October.

In Boston, US District Court Judge Reginald Lindsay ordered the US subsidiary of Geneva-based Serono to pay a criminal fine of $136.9 million and a $567 million civil fine. The settlement also bars Serono Laboratories from involvement in any federal health program for five years.

The sentence is the third-largest payment for health care fraud, said Alberto Gonzales, US attorney general.

In order to increase demand for Serostim - which declined in the era of protease inhibitors - Serono illegally paid physicians and offered expense-paid trips to a conference in Cannes, France, in exchange for prescribing the drug, prosecutors said.
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