In the past week the US Department of Justice has filed lawsuits twice against Novartis. The Department stated Novartis paid kickbacks to boost prescription which led the federal healthcare programs to pay for medicines based on false claims. The feds have been making similar allegations towards drugmakers for the past 10 years. Novartis would pay people off by taking them to expensive dinners or fun activities. Three years ago Novartis paid $422.5 million in penalties and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for promoting its Trileptal epilepsy medication and several other drugs. The Corporate Integrity Agreement was the settlement the drugmaker signed which stated that they must establish an internal compliance program to report violations.
