Settlement amount: $1.5 billion
Year of settlement: 2012
Drugs involved: The mood stabilizer and antiepileptic Depakote (valproic acid)
Criminal charges filed? Yes
Abbott illegally marketed Depakote as a treatment for aggression and agitation in dementia patients, despite the fact that it wasn’t approved for those uses and has been found to cause severe side effects like anorexia in the elderly. It also marketed the drug as an add-on treatment for schizophrenia, even though the company’s own research showed it provided no additional benefit for the condition and it was not approved for that use.