Office of Attorney General Mike Hilgers
Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced today that Nebraska has joined the United States, 37 other States, and Puerto Rico in settling kickback allegations against Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., owned by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc. Pfizer, on behalf of Biohaven, has agreed to pay more than $59 million to resolve allegations that Biohaven knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to the Medicaid program and other federal healthcare programs.
Biohaven was paying kickbacks to healthcare providers in the form of cash, lavish meals, and honoraria payments to induce them to prescribe Biohaven’s product, Nurtec ODT. Nurtec is a prescription medication for the treatment of migraine headaches. Nebraska will receive $62,688.71 in restitution and other recoveries as part of the settlement.
Biohaven paid kickbacks to providers to present at speaker programs to induce them to prescribe Nurtec for Medicaid and other federal healthcare beneficiaries. Biohaven paid some providers tens of thousands of dollars and, in some cases, more than a hundred thousand dollars for these speaker programs. In numerous instances, speaker programs were also attended by individuals such as the speaker’s spouse, family members, and friends, who had no educational need to attend. Also, certain providers attended multiple programs on the same topic and received expensive meals and drinks paid for by Biohaven but received no educational benefit from attending these programs.
The case against Biohaven was initiated by a whistleblower who was a former Biohaven employee and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
The matter was investigated by a team from the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office in New York.