April 27, 2010
The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will pay $520 million to settle allegations of off-label marketing.
Charges that the company illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel were originally raised in a lawsuit brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.
The civil settlement resolves allegations that by marketing Seroquel for uses that had not been approved by the FDA, the company caused false claims for payment to be submitted to federal insurance programs. The federal government will receive $301,907,007 from the settlement, and the state Medicaid programs and the District of Columbia will share up to $218,092,993.