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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: Serono Inc.
Current Parent Company: Merck KGaA (EMD)
Parent at the Time of the Penalty Announcement:  subscribe to see this data field
Recap of Ownership Changes:  subscribe to see this data field
Penalty: $262,000,000
Year: 2005
Date: October 17, 2005
Offense Group: healthcare-related offenses
Primary Offense: off-label or unapproved promotion of medical products
Secondary Offense: False Claims Act and related
Mega-Scandal: Improper Drug Marketing
Violation Description: Serono agreed to pay $262 million to settle multistate litigation alleging that it defrauded Medicaid programs by promoting its AIDS drug Serostim for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and by paying kickbacks to healthcare providers to encourage them to prescribe the drug for those uses. This was part of a larger $704 million civil and criminal settlement also involving the federal government; see the Violation Tracker entry at (click here)
Level of Government: state
Action Type: agency action
Agency: Multistate Attorneys General Case
Civil or Criminal Case: civil
HQ Country of Current Parent: Germany
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: publicly traded
Major Industry of Current Parent: pharmaceuticals
Specific Industry of Current Parent: pharmaceuticals
Source of Data: (click here)
Source Notes: If an online information source is not working, check the Violation Tracker Data Sources page for an updated link.
Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.