Pfizer has agreed to pay $59,746,277 to resolve allegations that, prior to Pfizer’s acquisition of the company, Biohaven knowingly caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and other federal health care programs.
The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by a former sales representative at Biohaven.
According to DOJ allegations, from March 1, 2020 through September 30, 2022, Biohaven paid kickbacks, including in the form of speaker honoraria and meals at high end restaurants, to health care professionals to induce them to prescribe the migraine medication, Nurtec ODT. The government further alleged that certain prescribers who attended multiple programs on the same topic received no educational benefit from attending repeat programs and that certain Biohaven speaker programs were attended by individuals with no educational need to attend, such as the speakers’ spouses, family members or friends.
In May 2022, Pfizer agreed to pay $11.6 billion in cash to acquire Biohaven, with an eye on the company’s already approved fast-acting migraine therapy tablets, Nurtec ODT. The acquisition was completed in October 2022 and at that point, Pfizer terminated the bogus speaker programs.