Go Hawaii!!

Again, stolen from the ASHP Daily Briefing: (Looks like Hawaii cleaned up, but it’s not the only state to partake in the litigation)

The AP (10/8, Niesse) reports, “About 40 pharmaceutical companies accused of inflating drug prices will pay the state of Hawaii $82 million to settle the claims, Attorney General Mark Bennett announced Wednesday.” The companies “allegedly bumped up the prices of their drugs bought for Medicaid prescriptions from 1993 to 2006, resulting in the state overpaying for medications for tens of thousands of patients.” The biggest “share of the settlement comes from Merck & Co., the country’s second-largest drug manufacturer, which will pay $28 million.” The “cost of prescription drugs in Hawaii’s Medicaid program soared from $45 million in 1999 to $117 million in 2004.”

The Star-Advertiser (10/8, Kobayashi) reports, “The total amount of the settlements was more than $82.6 million, but the state should receive between $30 million and $40 million after paying attorney fees and costs and the federal government, which also paid for the Medicaid program,” Bennett said. The settlements “come from massive litigation started here four years ago when the state sued the drug companies, alleging they fraudulently inflated their prescription drug prices.” Approximately “20 other states filed similar lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies, leading to massive litigation around the country. Bennett estimated that the recovery nationwide was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

• State to receive millions from prescription drug settlements, including Botox (seattlepi.com)
• Drug Makers Accused of Ignoring Price Law (nytimes.com)
• Omnicare Pays $21 million to Settle Allegations of Medicaid Fraud in Massachusetts and Michigan in Whistleblower Action (prweb.com)
• Florida recovers over $27 million from Medicaid fraud settlement (bnonews.com)