A New Jersey pharmaceutical company has pleaded guilty to kickback and conspiracy charges and will pay more than $24 million in criminal fines and civil payments.

The company, Biovail Pharmaceuticals, LLC., pleaded guilty to charges of paying thousands of physicians to engage in a program called “PLACE” (Proving Long Acting Through Experience) and to prescribe or recommend the drug Cardizem, L.A. The payments exceeded the reasonable fair market value of the medical prescribers’ time necessary to complete the different phases of the program.

And because the program resulted in prescriptions being paid for by Medicaid, the company has agreed to pay $2.4 million to resolve allegations of false claims submitted to the United States.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.