A North Carolina pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay more than $46 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations of paying kickbacks to physicians and pharmacies to induce prescriptions of its kidney transplant immunosuppression drug, including the largest Sunshine Act penalty in the law’s history, the Justice Department said in an Aug. 10 news release.
Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, maker of Envarsus XR, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a $10 million criminal penalty for conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute.
From 2016 through 2023, Veloxis employees took physicians and their guests on trips and resort stays under the guise of advisory boards, provided expensive meals and alcohol, and made sham consulting payments while falsifying expense reports to conceal the payments and avoid Sunshine Act reporting requirements.
The company also agreed to pay $34.45 million to resolve False Claims Act civil allegations, including kickbacks paid to specialty pharmacies disguised as payments for “enhanced services.” Additionally, Veloxis agreed to pay a $1.55 million civil penalty to CMS for knowingly underreporting physician payments under the Open Payments Program, the largest Sunshine Act recovery since the law passed in 2010. Veloxis entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with HHS-OIG as part of the resolution.
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