BOSTON – A subsidiary of healthcare company Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle allegations that it violated federal and state laws by providing a surgeon with free products to use moving its products into proceedings, prosecutors said on Friday.
As part of the settlement with DePuy Synthes, the company acknowledges and accepts responsibility for providing the surgeon with implants and instruments used in spinal surgery from 2013 to 2018, federal prosecutors said.
“We have cooperated fully with the government during the investigation into the allegations and have been recognized for our cooperation in reaching the settlement,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. “This agreement avoids further lengthy court proceedings. We are committed to ensuring the behavior of our employees to conduct business in a manner that is consistent with our creed and all laws and regulations.”
Headquartered in Raynham, Massachusetts, DePuy manufactures and sells medical devices, including spinal implants.
The surgeon, whose name has been redacted in the agreement, performed more than 20 surgeries over the course of multiple trips to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, using approximately $1,000 worth of DePuy products US$100,000 used by company sales representatives had made available to him.
The surgeon and the hospitals where the procedures were performed did not pay for the products.
Prosecutors said DePuy provided them to induce the surgeon to use the company’s products in spinal surgeries performed on Medicare and Medicaid patients in Massachusetts in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, which aims to ensure that medical provider judgments are based on the best interests of patients and are not compromised by improper financial incentives.
“Unlawful kickbacks can seriously distort medical judgment and the medical device market,” US Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins said in a statement. “The millions of patients who depend on our healthcare system deserve untainted medical decisions.”
Approximately $7.2 million of the $9.75 million settlement will go to the federal government and approximately $2.5 million to the state. More than $1.8 million of the federal portion will go to the whistleblower who filed the original lawsuit in 2017 under a statutory provision that allows private parties to sue on behalf of the government and participate in any recovery participate.
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