The drugmaker was accused of paying docs as much as $1,000 and their office managers $150 each to get patients to use its Cardizem heart drug as part of a study that was to have been published. To extricate itself, Biovail agreed to pay $24.6 million to settle a Justice Department investigation into the 2003 launch of a long-actng version.

“This is an important and positive result for Biovail and its shareholders,” ceo Bill Wells says in a statement, “as the agreement eliminates the significant exposure to the corporation related to this matter and should immediately reduce our ongoing legal expenses.”

But the aggravation hasn’t ended entirely. The Securities and Exchange Commission two months ago charged the Canadian drugmaker and several former and current senior execs - including founder and former ceo Eugene Melnyk - with engaging in fraudulent accounting schemes and making misstatements to analysts and investors.