Last updated: December 28, 2014


World Breaking News

US Sanofi to pay $109m over 'kickbacks'

THE US subsidiaries of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi will pay $US109 million ($A104 million) to settle allegations they gave kickbacks to induce doctors in the US to buy and prescribe Hyalgan, a knee injection.

The US Justice Department alleges that Sanofi-Aventis US Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis US LLC violated the False Claims Act by giving doctors thousands of free units of Hyalgan as the drug faced pressure from a lower-priced competitor.

The agency also alleges Sanofi submitted false reports on the average sale price of Hyalgan that excluded the free units, causing Medicare and other federal health care programs to reimburse the company at inflated rates.

Officials at the company's US base in Bridgewater, New Jersey, weren't immediately available to comment.