A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Abbott Laboratories who is accused of paying kickbacks to induce doctors to implant the company’s carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products.
The two whistleblowers that filed the original complaint will receive a total payment of more than $1 million.
The first of the whistleblower cases was filed in September 2009. The government's complaint alleged that Abbott knowingly paid prominent physicians for teaching assignments, speaking engagements and conferences with the expectation that these physicians would arrange for the hospitals with which they were affiliated to purchase Abbott’s carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products. As a result, the United States alleged Abbott violated the Anti-Kickback Act and caused the submission of false claims to Medicare for the procedures in which these Abbott products were used.
