Two months after a federal jury told Novartis to pay $250 million in punitive damages for engaging in a pattern of discrimination against female employees, the drugmaker has agreed to pay as much as $152.5 million to settle the sex discrimination class action lawsuit brought by female sales reps (background).

The money will to go to eligible class members - $60 million for back pay and an $40 million for compensatory damages. Other payments will go to plaintiffs and class members who testified in the case. Novartis will spend another $22.5 million over three years to improve personnel practices, and also agreed not to oppose $40 million in fees and expenses for lawyers who represented the sales reps.

“The terms of this agreement allow for full compensation of both former and current female field force employees, ensuring that every woman who worked at Novartis over the past eight years has been compensated fairly,” David Sanford, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, says in a statement. “While we believe that there was not systemic discrimination at NPC, the trial revealed that some of our associates had experiences influenced by managerial behavior inconsistent with our values,” Novartis ceo Joe Jimenez says.

pic thx to 3neus on flickr