NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Pfizer ( PFE ) will pay

$59.7 million to resolve charges that a company it acquired

defrauded Medicare and other healthcare programs by paying

kickbacks so doctors would prescribe the migraine drug Nurtec

ODT, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday.

The Justice Department said that from March 1, 2020, to

Sept. 30, 2022, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals violated the federal

False Claims Act by providing speaker honoraria and meals at

high-end restaurants to doctors, to induce them to prescribe

Nurtec more often.

According to the government, some speaker programs were

attended multiple times by the same doctors, resulting in no

educational benefit, or attended by doctors' spouses, family

members and colleagues who had no educational need to be there.

Pfizer ( PFE ) ended the Nurtec speaker programs after paying $11.5

billion to buy Biohaven in October 2022.

"Patients deserve to know that their doctor is prescribing

medications based on their doctor's medical judgment, and not as

a result of financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies,"

said Trini Ross, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New

York.

Pfizer ( PFE ) did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.

"We are pleased to put this legacy matter behind us, so that

we can continue to focus on the needs of patients," the New

York-based drugmaker said in a statement.

The settlement resolves an August 2021 lawsuit filed in the

Rochester, New York federal court by Patricia Frattasio, a

former Biohaven neuroscience sales specialist.

She will receive about $8.4 million from the settlement.

About $41.8 million will go to the federal government and $9.5

million will go to state Medicaid programs.

The False Claims Act lets whistleblowers sue on behalf of

the government, and share in recoveries.