Smyrna drug company pleads guilty, fined $34 million

UCB Inc., a Smyrna-based unit of the Brussels-based drugmaker UCB SA (UCB), pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Washington for improperly marketing an epilepsy medicine and will pay more than $34 million in fines and penalties.

In a Bloomberg News report, UCB Inc., which is located at 1950 Lake Park Drive, admitted to the criminal misdemeanor that it promoted the medicine for uses that were unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

According to the Bloomberg story, the drug in question is called Keppra, and with $1.37 billion in sales last year, it is the company’s top-selling drug.

The company promoted the drug in 2004 for migraine treatment without approval from the FDA according to case documents. The FDA had only given approval to help those who have seizures from epilepsy.

The Bloomberg story quoted Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, as saying, “UCB put its pursuit of profits ahead of its obligations to patients. Today’s guilty plea and UCB’s $34 million payout should remind drug companies that try to cleverly design off-label marketing schemes that we will not allow them to compromise patient safety.”

The article said that a UCB spokeswoman, Christine Madara, indicated that the company has been cooperating with the investigation for three years and was pleased to have resolved the matter.