MONTGOMERY -- The Alabama Supreme Court looks set to decide the fate of a $215 million award against Big Pharma's AstraZeneca over a Medicaid-mispricing lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Alabama Attorney General Troy King's big victory in the lawsuit will likely spur other AGs to emulate him and sue dozens of drugmakers at once over similar charges. Iowa AG Tom Miller
recently sued 78 drugmakers claiming they raised drug prices and ripped-off Iowa's Medicaid program.
AstraZeneca announced Friday it would appeal Thursday's award ruling in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, which includes a whopping $175 million in punitive damages. King initially sued 73 drugmakers in 2005 alleging they overstated the true cost of the pharmaceuticals they supplied to Alabama's Medicaid program.
"AstraZeneca maintains that this lawsuit is legally and factually unfounded," the statement read. "The case was based on the misleading premise that the Alabama State Medicaid Agency did not understand how drug prices are established and reported."
The company will also file to have the punitive damages award tossed on grounds it breaches state law restricting such damages to three times compensatory damages. AstraZeneca's was the first of the 73 cases to go to trial after the AG recently settled with two other drugmakers, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc. and Day LP.
Drugmakers appear increasingly inclined to settle these ubiquitous suits and that trend will likely continue or accelerate after the Alabama trial verdict against AstraZeneca.
The states
recently landed part of a $183 million federal payment by Big Pharma's Adventis to settle similar overpricing charges for its anti-nausea drug Anzemat. And Texas Attorney General recently picked up
another such settlement - from Big Pharma's GlaxoSmithKline over charges dating back to 1994.
Iowa's Miller filed his Medicaid-mispricing lawsuits last October and specifically mentioned the pricing of drugs made by GlaxoSmithKline and also Pfizer. He claims Iowa Medicaid spent $1.6 billion total on all the defendants' products between 1992 and 2005.
