US jury orders GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis to pay $114 mn price fraud case
A jury in Alabama on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running drug pricing scheme affecting a federal health care program for the poor, and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages.
By Agencies |
MONTGOMERY: A jury in Alabama on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running drug pricing scheme affecting a federal health care program for the poor, and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages.
The state court jury found that GlaxoSmithKline should pay the state $80.8 million in compensatory damages and that Novartis should pay about $33.7 million in similar damages. But it declined to order any punitive damages.
The state had asked for as much as $800 million in total damages in what its attorneys claimed was a scheme to overcharge for Medicaid prescription drugs from 1991 to 2005.
The companies had denied any fraud, contending they followed proper procedures in setting drug prices.
GlaxoSmithKline is a London-based health care company with US headquarters in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Novartis is the US affiliate of a Swiss company with US headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey.
The jury returned the verdict on its second day of deliberations. It was the second trial of the state's lawsuits accusing more than 70 drug companies of Medicaid drug pricing fraud. In the first trial in February, a jury awarded the state $215 million against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. Price, who also was the judge in that case, later reduced that verdict to $160 million.
The state court jury found that GlaxoSmithKline should pay the state $80.8 million in compensatory damages and that Novartis should pay about $33.7 million in similar damages. But it declined to order any punitive damages.
The state had asked for as much as $800 million in total damages in what its attorneys claimed was a scheme to overcharge for Medicaid prescription drugs from 1991 to 2005.
The companies had denied any fraud, contending they followed proper procedures in setting drug prices.
GlaxoSmithKline is a London-based health care company with US headquarters in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Novartis is the US affiliate of a Swiss company with US headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey.
The jury returned the verdict on its second day of deliberations. It was the second trial of the state's lawsuits accusing more than 70 drug companies of Medicaid drug pricing fraud. In the first trial in February, a jury awarded the state $215 million against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. Price, who also was the judge in that case, later reduced that verdict to $160 million.
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