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BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT 13th
August, 2005:Florida's Attorney General has
filed a lawsuit against three generic
pharmaceutical manufacturers Mylan, Teva and
Watson for allegedly defrauding Florida's Medicaid
programme in a scheme that costs Florida's
taxpayers US$25 million.
The lawsuit alleges the three wrongfully inflated
prices such as to allow pharmacies to receive
excessive reimbursements for filing prescriptions
for Medicaid patients who bought generic drugs for
depression, schizophrenia, seizures, angina and
other illnesses.
The lawsuit was brought about after an
investigation by the Attorney General's Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit. The three companies include
their various parent and subsidiary companies as
well. The investigation found the three companies
used the potential reimbursement windfalls as a
marketing tool, telling pharmacies that they could
make more money in Medicaid reimbursements if they
sold the three firms' drugs rather than those of
competitors.
Prompted by a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by a
Key West pharmacy, the investigation found the
fraudulent practices began as early as 1994, and
allegedly resulted in hundreds of thousands of
false claims. The lawsuit alleges violations of
the Florida False Claims Act and common law fraud.
The False Claims Act allows triple damages.
This was the third such case brought against drug
manufacturers for defrauding Medicaid and Florida
taxpayers. The other two cases were against three
manufacturers, Dey, Warrick Pharmaceuticals and
Roxane Laboratories, in July 2003, and against an
additional three companies, Sandoz, IVAX
Pharmaceuticals and Purepac Pharmaceuticals, in
April 2005, the Attorney General said.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT |
