( February 19, 2025, 2:48 PM EST) -- BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 18 affirmed a lower court ruling granting summary judgment to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) suit alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) regarding purported improper funding of the Chronic Disease Fund (CDF) to subsidize patient copays for a Regeneron macular degeneration drug, finding that in this case of “first impression” regarding a 2010 amendment to the AKS, to show falsity under the amendment, the government must prove “that an illicit kickback was the but-for cause of a submitted claim.”...