Alabama Seeks $170M In Lawsuit Alleging Generic Drugmaker Sandoz Overcharged Medicaid

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 26 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

An attorney for the state of Alabama on Monday asked a jury to order Germany-based generic drug manufacturer Sandoz to pay as much as $170 million for allegedly overcharging the state's Medicaid program for prescription drugs for more than 10 years, the Miami Herald reports. Sandoz, a subsidiary of Novartis, is one of more than 70 prescription drug manufacturers that were sued by Alabama Attorney General Troy King in 2005 over Medicaid drug pricing dating back to 1991. State attorney Jere Beasley (R) asked jurors to reward the state with about $28.4 million in compensatory damages and nearly five times that amount in punitive damages.

Sandoz attorney Tabor Novak said that the company reported accurate prices and that it saved Alabama millions of dollars by providing less-costly generic drugs. He added that state officials did not understand the process of determining prices.

The state has settled 10 of the lawsuits for nearly $35 million. AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have appealed their cases to the state Supreme Court (Johnson, Miami Herald, 2/23).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations