Johnson & Johnson, Sandoz and 23 other pharmaceutical firms will collectively pay $88 million to settle accusations they unlawfully inflated wholesale drug prices and defrauded Louisiana's Medicaid program.
The settlement mostly concludes Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's three-year fight against unfair drug pricing in the state's Medicaid program, according to a Times-Picayune report. Since 2010, Louisiana has recovered more than $238 million from more than 100 drug companies over pricing practices.
"These companies took advantage of the state and its taxpayers by fraudulently over-pricing and marketing prescription drugs, thereby forcing the state's Medicaid program to grossly over-pay for those prescriptions," Mr. Caldwell told KSLA. He said the recovered funds, 25 to 50 percent of which will be kept by the state, will go back into the Medicaid program to help Louisiana's most needy patients.
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