Forest Laboratories, and its subsidiary, Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., will pay $38 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs Bystolic, Savella, and Namenda.

The settlement resolves allegations that Forest violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the payment of remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by federal health care programs, by providing payments and meals to certain physicians in connection with speaker programs about Bystolic, Savella, or Namenda.

Federal officials alleged that the payments and meals were intended as improper inducements because Forest provided these benefits even when the programs were cancelled – and Forest provided no evidence of a bona fide reason for the cancellation – when no licensed health care professionals attended the programs, when the same attendees had attended multiple programs over a short period of time, or when the meals associated with the programs exceeded Forest’s internal cost limitations.

The settlement resolves allegations filed in a lawsuit by former Forest employee Kurt Kroening, in federal court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery.

Kroening will receive approximately $7.8 million.