[HN Gopher] Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks ...
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       Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations
        
       Author : yaa_minu
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2022-09-26 21:38 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.justice.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.justice.gov)
        
       | z3c0 wrote:
       | I really take issue with "settlements" of such a scale that don't
       | equate to an admission of guilt. It's essentially buying a _get
       | of jail free_ card. If any individual were facing criminal
       | charges, they would have to plea guilty before any easy-way-out
       | is considered.
       | 
       | If it would have taken a billion dollars in legal fees to prove
       | your innocence, I'm going to take a chance and suggest that these
       | claims likely weren't "false".
        
         | daniel-cussen wrote:
         | $30 billion fine, that's appropriate. Dude get the pricing
         | right, government should get valuators for this, it's not a
         | percentage of the profits, it's double or treble the damages.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | What's more, these "headline" settlement numbers usually go
         | before a judge and get knocked down to 10-30% of what they
         | originally were. The new (final) settlement number rarely makes
         | the headlines
        
         | advisedwang wrote:
         | There's no such thing as guilt in a civil suit though - even if
         | it goes to trial there is no guilt or non-guilt verdict,
         | there's just a balance of evidence. There's still no admission
         | or presumption of guilt at the end of a trial.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | CoastalCoder wrote:
         | The movie "Law Abiding Citizen" [0] gives voice to similar
         | frustrations.
         | 
         | A very thought-provoking movie, but definitely not a good
         | choice for "date night".
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Abiding_Citizen
        
       | pGuitar wrote:
       | Anyone going to jail?
       | 
       | Money means nothing if they get charged a fraction of what they
       | made in profits...
        
         | CountSessine wrote:
         | Their net income for 2021 was $1058M on about $10B of revenue,
         | so this mostly wipes out 1 year of profits.
         | 
         | -\\_(tsu)_/-
        
           | pGuitar wrote:
           | Not sure how long they have been doing this, but even if it
           | was only one year, the fine is too small.
        
             | dd36 wrote:
             | It should be profits plus executive compensation. Profits
             | are too easily manipulated.
        
         | abraae wrote:
         | > The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only
         | and there has been no determination of liability.
         | 
         | Not only not going to jail, but didn't even acknowledge any
         | wrongdoing.
        
       | thunky wrote:
       | > paying kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe
       | Biogen drugs
       | 
       | I blame the ones that take the money.
        
       | notch656a wrote:
       | How much of this goes to the victims who were inappropriately
       | prescribed drugs? 90%, 95% 100% ?
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-26 23:00 UTC)