Abbott penalized in Depakote drug Case

Abbott penalized in Depakote drug CaseDrug maker Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has lost the Depakote drug case in the US and has been sentenced to pay criminal liabilities.

U. S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson of the Western District of Virginia ahs ordered the company to pay $500 million in criminal fine, forfeit another $198.5 million and pay $1.5 million to the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The company will also face a five year term of probation after it was proven guilty in the court.

"Abbott unlawfully targeted a vulnerable population, the elderly, through its off-label promotion. The court's sentence makes clear that those who engage in such conduct will be prosecuted and held accountable," said Timothy Heaphy, U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.

The company is accused of promoting its off-label antiseizure drug Depakote in the country. Abbott Laboratories, which is based in Abbott Park, Illinois, had pleaded guilty in May to the charges and agreed to pay $1.6 billion to settle the criminal and civil obligations linked to the illegal promotion of its Depakote drug.

The company said that it promoted Depakote off-label to treat behavioral disturbances in dementia patients between January 1998 and December 2006 and it also promoted the drug to treat schizophrenia between January 2002 and December 2006. Both the uses were not approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the company did not have the legal right to promote the products in the market.