Attorney General Jeff Jackson Secures Over $200 Million from Gilead Sciences for Paying Kickbacks to Doctors

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that Gilead Sciences will pay $202 million to resolve claims that it paid kickbacks to doctors in exchange for promoting its HIV medications, resulting in millions of dollars of false claims submitted to government health care programs, including North Carolina’s Medicaid program. North Carolina’s Medicaid program will receive $760,106 from the settlement in principle, which was reached in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and 48 other states and came from a qui tam lawsuit.

“Doctors are supposed to prescribe the medications that are best for patients – not the medication they get the biggest prize for prescribing,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “This pharma company put profits over patients. We won’t let that happen in North Carolina.” 

From January 2011 to November 2017, Gilead paid kickbacks by providing gifts to health care providers who attended and spoke at promotional speaker programs for Gilead’s HIV drugs. Gilead paid these speakers, who prescribed Gilead drugs at high rates, tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to present at events. The company also covered travel expenses for speakers, including those traveling long distances and to attractive destinations, such as Hawaii, Miami, and New Orleans, and hosted dinners at high-end restaurants.

Gilead’s internal compliance mechanisms failed to halt these kickbacks. The company’s policies and procedures didn’t prevent sales representatives from improperly offering incentives to get more prescriptions of the company’s drugs.

The National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units team that investigated and conducted settlement negotiations on behalf of the states included representatives from the attorneys general of California, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Joining Attorney General Jackson in securing this settlement are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)

The Attorney General’s MID investigates and prosecutes health care providers that defraud the Medicaid program, patient abuse of Medicaid recipients, patient abuse of any patient in facilities that receive Medicaid funding, and misappropriation of any patients’ private funds in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding.

To date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. To report Medicaid fraud or patient abuse in North Carolina, call the MID at 919-881-2320. The MID receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $8,453,116 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2025. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,817,703 for FY 2025, is funded by the State of North Carolina.

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