January 08, 2009
Teva Pharmaceuticals and its subsidiary, Ivax Pharmaceuticals, paid $7 million to the Massachusetts Medicaid program to settle a False Claims Act case.
Teva and Ivax are among 13 drug makers sued in 2003 by the state for allegedly inflating prices they reported to national pharmaceutical price-reporting services.
Massachusetts has already received $7.48 million in settlements with five other defendants, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit accused the companies of selling their drugs to doctors and pharmacies at prices below the cost they were reporting to the government, telling them that they could pocket the difference, a practice sometimes referred to as “marketing the spread.”