Serono probe may now switch to pharmacies

Court filings indicate that pharmacies that pocketed a 4 percent discount on Serono's AIDS drug Serostim may be facing a government investigation. On Monday, Serono Labs revealed that it had paid $704 million and pleaded guilty to two criminal charges that it had improperly used kickbacks and discounts to market the drug. As much as 85 percent of the prescribing of Serostim may have been unnecessary. Investigators had concentrated on allegations that the discounts had essentially engineered a fleecing of Medicaid and Medicare programs that paid for the drugs, with the pharmacies pocketing the discounts.

- read this report from the Boston Globe for more