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Editor: Mike Bothwell
Profession: Qui Tam Attorney

Category: Settlements and Verdicts

Alabama Attorney General Troy King announced January 9, 2008 that the State has settled claims against pharmaceutical manufacturers Dey, LP and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. for $6.75mm...

The lawsuit alleged that these companies fraudulently inflated their reported prices for prescription drugs, causing the Alabama Medicaid Agency to overpay pharmacists and doctors. According to the AG's office, Takeda will pay the State of Alabama $2 million for claims involving the diabetes drug Actos, while Dey will pay $4.75 million for claims involiving Albuterol Sulfate, Ipratropium Bromide, and other pulminary and asthma drugs.

The suit, which was initiated in 2005 in Montgomery County Circuit Court, continues against 71 other defendants for fraud regarding the pricing of prescription drugs. It alleges enormous overcharges to the Alabama Medicaid Agency over a period of many years as a result of fraudulent price inflation by the drug companies. Four of the remaining defendants, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, AstraZeneca LP, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and SmithKline Beecham Corporation d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, are scheduled to go to trial in February in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Trials against the other defendants are yet to be scheduled.