Boehringer Ingelheim to pay $95M in settlement

(AP) The government says a pharmaceutical company will pay $95 million to settle allegations that the firm Boehringer Ingelheim improperly promoted three drugs for uses that were not medically accepted.

The Justice Department says the three are the stroke-prevention drug Aggrenox, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug Combivent and the hypertension drug Micardis.

The company also promoted the use of a fourth drug, Atrovent, at doses exceeding those covered by federal health care programs. Atrovent also is used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Finally, the settlement resolves allegations that Boehringer Ingelheim paid kickbacks to health care professionals to induce them to prescribe all four of the drugs.

The federal government will receive more than $78 million under the settlement and state Medicaid programs will receive over $16 million.