(Reuters) – Elanco Animal Health agreed to pay a $15 million civil fine to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission anti-fraud charges for misleading investors about its revenue growth and end-user demand, the regulator said on Tuesday.
The SEC said Elanco should have disclosed that between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, it used sales incentives to achieve its revenue growth and caused distributors to buy goods in excess of then-existing demand.
When Elanco decided to stop offering the incentives, causing a $160 million revenue decline, it cited the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic though the Greenfield, Indiana-based company had decided earlier to end the incentives, the SEC said.
Elanco did not admit or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. It was spun off by Eli Lilly in 2018.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)
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