Wyeth Accused of Failing to Pay Medicaid Rebates
The federal government and 16 states have joined whistleblower lawsuits filed against Wyeth that allege the drugmaker failed to pay Medicaid rebates. According to a report by Bloomberg, the lawsuits against Wyeth allege that the drugmaker failed to pay rebates for its Protonix Oral and Protonix IV medications. The Justice Department alleges Wyeth did not didn’t pay hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates even though it was required to grant the Medicaid program the same discount or “best price” it offered to hospitals.
According to Tony West, an assistant attorney general for the Justice Department, "[b]y offering massive discounts to hospitals, but then hiding that information from the Medicaid program, we believe Wyeth caused Medicaid programs throughout the country to pay much more for these drugs than they should have."
Wyeth has denied the allegations and maintains that its pricing calculations were correct.
