Over the years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken a host of drugmakers to task over alleged kickback payments intended to boost prescriptions. Recently, Pfizer found itself in the agency's crosshairs thanks to one of its M&A plays.
Now, Pfizer—which purchased neuroscience specialist Biohaven for $11.6 billion in 2022—is committing more than $59.7 million to resolve the kickback allegations against its subsidiary, the DOJ said Friday.
The claims and ensuing settlement revolve around Biohaven’s CGRP receptor antagonist Nurtec ODT, which is cleared to both treat and prevent migraines in adults. The drug, which was the crown jewel in Pfizer’s Biohaven buyout, delivered $928 million in 2023 sales. Pfizer reports its fourth-quarter 2024 financial results next week, and the drug is expected to cross the $1 billion mark for the first time.
The settlement resolves allegations—brought forward in a 2021 whistleblower lawsuit—that Biohaven induced doctors to write Nurtec prescriptions by paying “improper remuneration," including through speaker payouts and meals at “high end restaurants," according to a DOJ press release on Monday.
Prescribers who attended multiple educational programs on the same topic “received no educational benefit from attending repeat programs,” the DOJ said in its release, while other Biohaven speaker programs were attended by people with no educational need to be there, such as speakers’ spouses, family members or friends.
Pfizer’s buyout of Biohaven officially closed Oct. 3, 2022.
“The settlement relates to alleged conduct at Biohaven before Pfizer’s acquisition of the company in October 2022 and does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Pfizer is “pleased to put this legacy matter behind us, so that we can continue to focus on the needs of patients," the company's spokesperson said.
The allegations against Biohaven first came to light when an ex-staffer filed a whistleblower lawsuit against her former company in the summer of 2021. As part of the deal with the DOJ, the former staffer is in line to receive roughly $8.4 million as her share of the federal settlement, the government explained.
While Nurtec was already on a rapid ascent by the time of Biohaven’s acquisition, Pfizer has helped raise the migraine med’s profile even more thanks in part to an ad campaign with award-winning musician and actor Lady Gaga.
Biohaven isn't alone in facing allegations over kickbacks in recent years.
Last fall, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Teva Neuroscience forked over a combined $450 million in a DOJ settlement to resolve claims that they leveraged assistance foundations to fund patients’ copays for the multiple sclerosis blockbuster Copaxone from 2006 through 2017.
Prior to that, Biogen in 2022 finalized an agreement to pay $900 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging it paid kickbacks to doctors over a five-year span to boost sales of its own multiple sclerosis drugs.
Novartis has also found itself in the DOJ’s sights, paying more than $642 million in 2020 to resolve claims that it offered kickbacks to doctors and illegal copayment support to Medicare to improve pharmaceutical sales.