Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has filed a lawsuit charging three pharmaceutical manufacturers with wrongfully inflating prices for prescription drugs. The scheme, which allegedly cost Florida taxpayers $25 million, allowed pharmacies to receive excessive reimbursements for Medicaid prescription drugs.
The companies charged, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., are accused of inflating the average wholesale price reported for state Medicaid programs. A pharmacy would pay the company less for the drugs and profit each time Medicaid reimbursed it, the suits allege.
The lawsuit was prompted by a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by a small Key West pharmacy, according to a press release on the AG’s website dated July 20, 2005.