Novartis AG agreed to pay $390 million to settle a lawsuit in which the U.S. government claimed the Swiss company paid kickbacks to pharmacies to boost sales of some of its prescription drugs and reported lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings.
Europe’s biggest drugmaker reached a preliminary agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which sought $3.3 billion in fines and damages. A measure of profit called core net income fell 2 percent to $3.06 billion, missing the $3.13 billion average of 10 analyst estimates complied by Bloomberg.
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