Attorney General Tong Announces $202 Million Settlement with Gilead Sciences Over Illegal Kickbacks

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07/15/2025

Attorney General Tong Announces $202 Million Settlement with Gilead Sciences Over Illegal Kickbacks

(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 48 other attorneys general in securing $202 million from Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead), for running an illegal kickback scheme to promote its HIV medications. Gilead violated federal law by illegally providing incentives – including awards, meals, and travel expenses – to health care providers to prescribe Gilead’s medications, resulting in millions of dollars of false claims submitted to government health care programs, including Connecticut’s Medicaid program. The settlement in principle, reached in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice and approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, provides $49 million for Medicaid programs nationwide, including $582,125.18for Connecticut’s Medicaid program, with the remainder going to Medicare, Tricare, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).

“Gilead lavished high-volume prescribers with gifts, lucrative speaker fees and travel expenses, in clear violation of federal anti-kickback laws. These types of illegal payments undermine public faith in our healthcare institutions. In coordination with our partners across state and federal law enforcement, we will continue to aggressively protect against abuse of our taxpayer funded healthcare programs,” said Attorney General Tong.

From January 2011 to November 2017, Gilead violated federal anti-kickback laws by providing gifts to health care providers who attended and spoke at promotional speaker programs for Gilead’s HIV drugs: Stribild, Genvoya, Complera, Odefsey, Descovy, and Biktarvy. Gilead paid high-volume prescribers tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to present as “HIV Speakers.” 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 violations. The company’s policies and procedures failed to prevent its sales representatives from improperly offering incentives to induce prescriptions.

Joining Attorney General Tong in securing settlements with Gilead are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, 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 Carolina, 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.

Paralegal Specialist Orlean Woodham and Deputy Associate Attorney General Gregory O’Connell, Chief of the Government Fraud Section, assisted the Attorney General with this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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