AbbVie Faces Revived Fraud Claims Over Humira Ambassador Program

AbbVie Inc. will have to defend revived drug kickback claims related to the sale of Humira, but only to the extent the claims are based on conduct in Florida, a federal judge in Illinois said Monday.

The False Claims Act allegations involve AbbVie’s ambassador program, in which nurses go into patients’ homes as representatives of the company to provide assistance to recipients of the anti-inflammatory drug.

Registered nurse Lazaro Suarez participated in the program in Florida. He alleged AbbVie paid kickbacks to doctors in the form of free nurse services, which relieved doctors who prescribed Humira of administrative work.

After ...