(Ohio) Lawsuit says 5 drug firms gouged state

[salin]

Lawsuit says 5 drug firms gouged state

By Kimball Perry
Post staff reporter

Major drug companies lied about the average cost of their medicines to increase their profits at the expense of the elderly and poor, "deceptive and unconscionable acts" costing Ohio taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, a suit filed Tuesday alleges.

The suit, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, names five drug companies -- Warrick Pharmaceuticals of Nevada; Dey, Inc. of California; Pharmacia, since acquired by Pfizer, of New Jersey; Schering-Plough Corp. of New Jersey and Abbott Laboratories of Illinois.

They "have defrauded elderly and disabled Ohio Medicare beneficiaries, the Ohio Medicaid program administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and other prescription drug programs by knowingly issuing false and misleading wholesale price and acquisition data in order to induce (Ohio) -- to pay excessive, inflated prices for prescription drugs," the suit contends.

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An even more egregious example, the suit contends, is the chemotherapy drug Adriamycin, used to fight breast and other cancers, that the drug company Pharmacia said had an average wholesale price of $946.94, the rate at which it sold the drug to Ohio.

Adriamycin's "actual price," the suit contends, is $168, giving the drug company an excess profit -- or "spread" -- of $778.94.

More: http://www.cincypost.com/2004/03/10/drug031004.html