Former Warner Chilcott Executive Acquitted of Kickbacks Charge

A jury in federal court in Boston on Friday acquitted a former executive with Allergan PLC's Warner Chilcott unit of conspiring to pay kickbacks to doctors to get them to prescribe the company's drugs, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said.

The jury deliberated Thursday and Friday before delivering a verdict of not guilty in the criminal case of W. Carl Reichel, former president of Warner Chilcott's pharmaceutical unit. His trial began in late May.

The acquittal of Mr. Reichel illustrates the challenges the federal government faces in what it says is a new push to hold more individuals accountable for alleged corporate wrongdoing. Such cases have proved difficult in the past because it is tough for prosecutors to prove an individual had criminal intent in a corporate setting where decision-making is spread among many.

Federal prosecutors had accused Mr. Reichel of instructing his company's U.S. sales force to induce doctors to prescribe Warner Chilcott drugs, including the osteoporosis treatment Atelvia, by taking them to expensive dinners and paying them fees, ostensibly to give medical-education speeches to other doctors. Prosecutors said these speeches were more like social events, with very little talk of medicine.

In addition, prosecutors said Mr. Reichel, of Chester, N.J., instructed the Warner Chilcott sales force to bring food and drink to reward staffers at physicians' offices for submitting requests to insurance companies to pay for prescriptions of Warner Chilcott drugs. The alleged wrongdoing occurred between 2009 and 2011, before Allergan acquired Warner Chilcott in 2013.

Federal law bars payments that are intended to cause orders for products that are paid for by a federal health program, which prosecutors said applies to Warner Chilcott's drugs.

Mr. Reichel had pleaded not guilty. In court documents, his attorneys said there was no evidence that he intended to violate the anti-kickback law or that he had any knowledge of doing anything illegal.

Mr. Reichel's attorneys didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Warner Chilcott in October agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of health-care fraud, arising from similar allegations, and to pay $125 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation of its payments to physicians and other practices.

(more to come)

Write to Peter Loftus at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 17, 2016 14:15 ET (18:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.