Mylan to pay $57 million in drug pricing deal
Mylan Inc. agreed to pay $57 million to settle claims it caused the federal government and California to overpay for drugs.
The settlement, filed on Monday in federal court in Boston, arrived in cases filed by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc., a specialty pharmacy. California will get $26.3 million, the government will get $22.2 million, and Ven-A-Care and its attorneys will get $8.5 million, court records show.
Ven-A-Care sued under the U.S. False Claims Act and a similar statute in California, which lets whistle-blowers sue on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. While the California attorney general joined the lawsuit, the Justice Department did not.
The government will still share in the recovery in the lawsuit, which is part of the average wholesale price litigation consolidated before U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston. She must approve the settlement.
Michael Laffin, a spokesman for Canonsburg-based Mylan, the world's third-largest generic drug maker, could not be reached for comment.
In January, Mylan paid $625,000 to the state of Idaho to settle allegations that it inflated the cost of drugs covered by the state's Medicaid program. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden had accused the company of reporting false and inflated "average wholesale prices" of its medications, leading the state to reimburse pharmacies too much for drugs. Mylan admitted no liability or wrongdoing in the settlement.
Ven-A-Care has settled more than two dozen lawsuits since 2000 that allowed state and federal governments to collect more than about $3 billion. Ven-A-Care collected more than $400 million in whistle-blower fees during that period.
"This settlement would conclude Ven-A-Care's cases in the AWP multidistrict litigation in Boston," said its attorney, James Breen.
Ven-A-Care claimed that Mylan defrauded the United States and California by falsely reporting inflated prices of drugs. Mylan knew the governments would use those false reports to set higher reimbursement rates for Medicaid, Ven-A-Care claimed.
Mylan denied wrongdoing in the litigation and the settlement.
