Drug Manufacturer Fraud Litigation - Thursday, January 31, 2013 10:17 - 0 Comments

AWP Update

As we have periodically reported, our law firm continues to pursue litigation for the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas, Utah, South Carolina, Hawaii and Alaska on their AWP (Average Wholesale Price) claims. Fortunately, since we have successfully tried a number of these cases, we are now settling these cases with numerous Defendants in the individual States. We are pleased to announce that the firm has obtained over $100 million in settlements over the past several months. We are also in the process of finalizing a number of settlements for the eight States listed above. To date, we have settled cases for over $700 million in the AWP litigation for the eight States we currently represent. We also have a $31 million judgment on appeal. At the time of this writing, we are awaiting a verdict on an AWP case in Mississippi.

These recent settlements vary in amounts depending upon the State’s usage of a particular company’s drugs in its Medicaid program. These settlements involve numerous companies, but each State’s claim is negotiated separate and independent of the claims of any other State. In addition, some States require attorney’s fees and costs to be completely separate negotiations. Therefore, these settlements can sometimes become very complex and complicated.

Our firm considers it a great honor to represent the Attorneys General in each of the eight States. It is also a tremendous responsibility to insure that each State’s claim is adequately compensated by the Defendants accused of falsely reporting prices to the State’s Medicaid Program. These cases have proven to be a tremendous public service for the citizens of each of the eight States we represent and will continue to represent until each State is fully compensated for the wrongdoing by the pharmaceutical companies to the State’s Medicaid Programs.

In addition to the pharmaceutical companies reporting false prices to the Medicaid Program, our firm is also handling litigation against a pharmaceutical wholesaler, McKesson, which increased prices an additional five percent on some 1900 different types of drugs. This occurred during a given time period that was within the same timeframe that the pharmaceutical companies were reporting false prices. We have recently settled with McKesson in the States of Kansas and Louisiana, but are still litigating in the States of Alaska and Hawaii.

As is evident, the above-listed States’ Medicaid Programs were severely taken advantage of in terms of the prices being reported by the pharmaceutical industry, and some wholesalers, during the years 1991-2010. As we have previously reported, these cases are just one example of why healthcare costs are spiraling out of control in this country. We believe these cases are a huge step in the right direction towards curing the abuse of inflated costs that we all must pay for in the healthcare industry.

We have AWP trials set in March, May, June, August, October and November for 2013, and equally as many in 2014. We will keep you posted on any new developments that occur with these cases by settlement or verdicts. If you need additional information on the AWP litigation, contact Dee Miles, who is heading up the litigation for our firm, at 800-898-2034 or by email at Dee.Miles@beasleyallen.com.