OIG: Maryland drugmaker to settle kickback allegations for $210M

United Therapeutics Corp., a pharmaceutical company in Silver Spring, Md., will pay $210 million to resolve federal kickback allegations.

The Justice Department claimed UT violated the False Claims Act by using a third-party foundation as a conduit to pay copays for thousands of Medicare patients taking UT's hypertension drugs.

Specifically, the government alleged UT made donations to the foundation — which claimed nonprofit status — from 2010 to 2014. The foundation took those donations and paid for copays to steer patients toward the drugs, the DOJ alleged. The DOJ also claimed UT regularly received data from the foundation about how much the third party spent on copays. UT, in turn, used this data to decide how much to donate to the foundation, the government claims.

In addition the settlement, UT entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement with HHS' Office of Inspector General. The agreement requires UT to ensure third-party relations are compliant with law.

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