Baxter International has agreed to pay $18 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability over claims its unit ignored mold in air filters at a plant where sterile intravenous solutions were made, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
The resolution includes a deferred prosecution agreement and penalties and forfeiture totaling $16 million and a civil settlement under the False Claims Act with the federal government totaling approximately $2.158 million, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The government charged that managers at Baxter Healthcare Corp’s North Cove plant in Marion, North Carolina, ignored an employee’s warning that mold was found in air filters in the ceiling of the room where sterile intravenous solutions were manufactured, the statement said.