Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17221

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Publication type: news

Teva settles US drug pricing lawsuits
Pharma Times 2010 Feb 8
http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=17347

Full text:

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is the latest drugmaker to have settled lawsuits in the USA related to inflated prices for its medicines.

The Israeli firm says it has reached a settlement in principle to resolve claims brought on behalf of the USA, Texas, Florida, and California that relate to drug price reporting by pharmaceutical firms (including Teva) in about 15 states. The cases, which are pending in federal and state courts, allege that prices reported by companies caused governments to pay inflated reimbursements for drugs under Medicaid or other programmes.

Teva denies the allegations but notes that settling will “eliminate the majority of the alleged damages” asserted against the company in the various drug pricing litigations. As a result, the firm will record a charge of some $315 million in its fourth quarter results.

The company said that the charge includes both the settlement and a reserve for the remaining drug pricing lawsuits but did not specify how much the settlement sum is.