03.13.08
Why it’s hard to trust business: Rx drugs
Yet another reason why businesses require regulation and monitoring: price fixing.
A $125 million settlement has been announced in a major class action lawsuit involving members of the Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) coalition. The case, In re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation, was originally filed in 2002, and claimed that the defendant drug companies intentionally inflated reports of the Average Wholesale Prices (AWPs) on certain prescription drugs administered in doctors’ offices and paid for by Medicare Part B. …
Until 2006, the published AWP was used to set the price that Medicare and consumers making Medicare Part B co-payments pay physicians for these drug. Private insurance companies and other third-party payors also use the AWP to determine how much to pay physicians. The lawsuit contends that
consumers and third-party payors paid more than they should because of the drug companies’ false AWP reporting.The settlement includes branded and generic drugs used primarily in the treatment of cancer, HIV and other serious illnesses. Under the terms of the settlement 82.5 percent of the settlement fund is designated for third-party payors’ claims and the remaining 17.5 percent is designated for consumer claims.
The defendants included in today’s settlement are:
- Abbott Laboratories
- Amgen Inc.
- Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
- Hoechst Marion Roussel
- Baxter Healthcare Corp.
- Baxter International Inc.
- Bayer Corporation
- Dey, Inc.
- Fujisawa Healthcare, Inc.
- Fujisawa USA, Inc.
- Immunex Corporation
- Pharmacia Corporation
- Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC
- Sicor, Inc.
- Gensia, Inc.
- Gensia Sicor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- ZLB Behring, L.L.C.
Drugs covered in this settlement include Aranesp, Epogen, Neupogen, Neulasta, Anzemet, Ferrlecit and Infed. A full list of the drugs covered by the settlement is available here.
More at the link above.
