Serono reaches lawsuit agreement

Serono reaches lawsuit agreement

	Published : Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:58 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - EMD Serono Inc. agreed to pay $24 million to settle a civil lawsuit that alleged it promoted the company's AIDS drug Serostim for unapproved uses.

Earlier this week, the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts granted preliminary approval of the settlement, which would reimburse health plans, health insurance providers and individuals who paid for the drug.

Serostim treats AIDS wasting, a condition involving serious weight loss in AIDS patients.

This week's agreement follows a settlement Serono reached in 2005 with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $704 million in fines for unlawfully promoting Serostim.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005, accused Serono of promoting an unapproved medical device to improperly diagnose patients with AIDS wasting. The suit also alleged Serono provided doctors with travel stipends to prescribe the drug and that it marketed the drug for uses that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

'The company felt it was prudent to settle the class action lawsuits and put the matter behind it to focus and devote its energies on the core mission of developing treatments for unmet medical needs,' Serono said in a statement.

The DOJ settlement had reimbursed government programs for their Serostim payments but didn't include reimbursement for patients and private health plans, according to a statement by AFSCME District Council 37 Health and Security Plan, which provides health benefits to 120,000 New York City employees and retirees.

Rosaira Esperon, administrator for the union plan that was one of the original plaintiffs in the suit, said in a statement that Serono's promotion of Serostim affected some of the organization's most vulnerable members, leading them to use money for an unnecessary drug. She said the settlement brings the plan and its members a fair measure of justice.

EMD is the U.S. affiliate of Merck Serono, which is a division of Merck KGaA, the German drugmaker. Germany's Merck purchased Serono SA of Switzerland earlier this year. It has no relation to Merck & Co., which is based in New Jersey.