Avanir Pharmaceuticals will pay a combined $116 million in civil and criminal penalties for paying kickbacks to a physician to induce prescriptions of its drug Nuedexta, the Department of Justice announced.
According to a complaint filed Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Avanir violated the Anti-Kickback Statute by paying a doctor to increase his prescriptions of Nuedexta, a drug used to treat pseudobulbar affect, to beneficiaries of federal healthcare programs. Avanir offered the doctor financial incentives for this and persuaded him to recommend other physicians prescribe Nuedexta to beneficiaries of federal healthcare programs.
