Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) agreed to pay $22 million to settle a kickbacks case with the U.S. Justice Dept. related to its 2006 acquisition of Guidant Corp.
The Justice Dept. had accused Guidant of paying doctors to participate in post-market surveys in 2003 and 2004 in a bid to boost its pacemaker and defibrillator sales. Guidant allegedly paid docs between $1,000 to $1,500 each in 2003 and 2004 to participate in its RaCE, RaCE II, RaCE III, and MERITS studies, targeting physicians partial to competing companies’ products.
The settlement requires Boston Scientific, which admitted no wrongdoing in the case, to publish on its website all payments to physicians made by its cardiac rhythm management division.
