LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) — Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has announced her state’s involvement in the $784.6 million settlement between the federal government, several state governments and Wyeth over allegations the company knowingly underpaid rebates owed to the Medicaid drug rebate program.
Rutledge joined 34 other states and the District of Columbia in the settlement.
“Arkansas’ Medicaid program and the Medicaid program trust fund will receive more than $3 million from the multistate settlement,” Rutledge said. “The unacceptable actions of this pharmaceutical company put additional financial stress on the Medicaid program by not providing the agreed upon ‘best price’ rebate.”
Under the Medicaid rebate program, pharmaceutical companies must pay quarterly rebates back to state Medicaid programs for drugs it sells at pharmacies that were reimbursed by Medicaid.
According to allegations brought forth under two whistleblower lawsuits, Wyeth bundled medications but failed to report these bundled sales properly under the rebate program.
The national case was handled by attorneys general from Indiana, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina, working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Department of Justice.