Novo Nordisk to Pay $100 Million to Settle Kickbacks Lawsuit

Novo Nordisk has agreed to a $100 million settlement in a 2017 class-action lawsuit that accused the company of making kickbacks to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and failing to disclose information about its revenues related to insulin.

The complaint in the Federal District Court of New Jersey alleged that the company engaged in a kickback scheme with PBMs that artificially kept insulin prices high. “To gain formulary access, Novo inflated its list prices and then kicked back a significant portion of the list price to PBMs, calling it a ‘rebate,’” the plaintiffs said.

Novo Nordisk was able to raise the price of its insulin drugs 450 percent above the rate of inflation, the complaint alleged.

From 2010-2015, the company raised the price of its diabetes drug, Levemir, by 169 percent. And in 2014-2015 alone, the company increased Levemir’s price by 30 percent and increased the price of its NovoLog product by nearly 21 percent, according to the complaint.