Lawyers for Dallas-based Baron & Budd and Austin-based Slack Davis worked with federal prosecutors to force Sanofi-Aventis U.S. to pay $11.85 million to settle litigation charging the pharmaceutical company with violating the federal False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to Medicare patients though a nonprofit patient assistance program. Lawsuits filed by the law firms – and later supported by the U.S. Justice Department – accuse Sanofi of selling a multiple sclerosis drug called Lemtrada to Medicare recipients for nearly $100,000 per patient per year. The settlement agreement, which was announced Friday, was the result of a whistleblower complaint that initially exposed the scheme. The lawsuits alleged that Sanofi, which is a French-owned company with its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, made illegal payments to a non-profit entity called The Assistance Fund, which covered the copay patients needed to get Lemtrada.