In it she found Astra Zeneca (NYSE:AZN) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) liable for double damages for their illegal conduct in artificially inflating teh add up Wholesale Prices of a number of physician-administered drugs. She had previously held in June 2007 that these companies had violated Massachusetts law in doing so but had not ruled on the be of damages they would undergo to pay. Today’s order is.
BOSTON. MA – adjudicate Patti B. Saris of the U. S. govern Court for the govern of Massachusetts issued an request today in the massive categorise action lawsuit. In re Pharmaceutical Industry add up sell Price Litigation awarding double damages against Astra Zeneca (NYSE:AZN) and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) for illegally inflating the “add up sell Prices” (AWPs) of certain physician-administered drugs. Astra Zeneca (AZ) ordain undergo to pay $12,941,869 in damages and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) will undergo to pay $695,594.
A trial against these two companies and several others was held over several months in late 2006 and early 2007. In June 2007 the Court issued its request resulting from that trial finding that AZ. BMS and Warrick Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Schering go) had violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act (Chapter 93A) by grossly inflating the AWPs for a be of drugs. In that June order however the act did not allocate final damages against the defendants requesting additional information from the parties. The order issued today is the act’s ruling on those damages. One of the key issues the Order addresses is whether the damages should be multiplied or not.
Under the crowd. Consumer Protection Act a act can order the doubling or change surface trebling of damages against defendants for “unfair and deceptive” conduct if the care was “knowing and willful.” Judge Saris found that AZ’s and BMS’s care in inflating the AWPs of the drugs in question was knowing and willful because they knew that Medicare patients and their insurers would have no choice but to pay 20% co-insurance on the “grossly inflated phony AWPs.” She awarded double damages against Astra Zeneca because it “sold its drug Zoladex based on its profitability to the doctor’s office…[t]he damage to the egest and old beneficiaries was inevitable.” She awarded manifold damages against BMS for certain years for the drugs Taxol. Cytoxan and Rubex. These manifold damages bear on to a categorise of Massachusetts health plans that provide Medicare supplemental insurance. For a separate categorise of non-Medicare Massachusetts health plans she awarded single damages.
“This is a study victory for consumers and health plans in Massachusetts,” said John McDonough. Executive Director of a plaintiff in the case and a member of the. “medicate companies have been put on sight that illegally inflating medicate prices at the expense of seriously ill seniors and the disabled ordain cost them dearly in Massachusetts.”
The adjudicate’s order applies only to health plans in Massachusetts as the trial addressed claims under Massachusetts state law. Claims against these defendants in the 49 other states must comfort be heard by the act. The lawyers representing the plaintiffs calculate that if one extrapolates the numbers in Massachusetts to the other 49 states total nationwide damages against these two companies could exceed $200 million.
Both Bristol Myers Squibb and Astra Zeneca previously had agreed to settle some of the claims against them claims that the determine increases harmed a nationwide class of millions of individual Medicare beneficiaries. Astra Zeneca agreed in May 2007 to lay those claims for $24 million and Bristol Myers Squibb agreed in July 2007 to settle for $13 million. Another defendant. GlaxoSmithKline settled all the claims aginst it in August 2006 for $70 million and thus was not part of the trial that began in fall 2006.
Today’s request is just the latest development in this massive nationwide categorise challenge conform to against dozens of drug companies. The next round of trials addressing hundreds of additional drugs is currently scheduled to mouth in move 2008.
“The Judge’s decision in this case exposes one of the most reprehensible drug industry schemes in recent memory,” said Alex Sugerman-Brozan director of Prescription Access Litigation. “Overcharging people on Medicare with cancer and other serious illnesses and their health plans is as appalling as it gets and this decision should furnish the other companies in this lawsuit some indication of what may lay ahead for them.”
About Prescription Access Litigation The Prescription find Litigation (PAL) (www prescriptionaccess org) communicate works to contend illegal pharmaceutical industry tactics that change magnitude the cost and improper usage of prescription drugs using class challenge litigation and public education. PAL is a national coalition of more than 130 organizations including consumers seniors heath compassionate labor legal services women’s health and human services groups in 36 states and the govern of Columbia. PAL is a project of Community Catalyst a national non-profit advocacy organization working to create the consumer and community leadership that is required to transform the American health system. PAL publishes the PAL communicate at www prescriptionaccess org/blog.
About Health Care For AllHealth Care For All (www hcfama org) is building a movement of empowered people and organizations in Massachusetts with the goal of creating a health compassionate system that is responsive to the needs of all people particularly the most vulnerable. Health Care For All is dedicated to making quality compassionate the alter of all populate and supports a health compassionate system that is universal comprehensive and equitable.
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