Pharmaceutical Processing World

  • Home
  • Regulatory
    • Recalls
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Facility
  • Supply Chain
  • Equipment and Materials
  • Contract Manufacturing
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Alabama Gets $35M From Medicaid Suit Settlements

By Pharmaceutical Processing | December 24, 2008

By BOB JOHNSON Associated Press Writer MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama will receive nearly $35 million from settlements of 10 lawsuits accusing prescription drug companies of overcharging the state’s Medicaid program. Details of the settlements were revealed Tuesday by Attorney General Troy King. A fourth of the money will go to private attorneys. The law firms of Hand Arendall of Mobile and Beasley Allen of Montgomery will receive a total of about $4.8 million in attorneys fees and $3.9 million for expenses. A total of $10.3 million from the settlements will go into the state’s cash-strapped General Fund budget and $4.9 million to the state Medicaid agency. The federal Medicaid program will receive $10.1 million and the Alabama Attorney General’s office will get about $750,000. Some of the settlements had been previously announced. King said details with two of the companies were finalized Monday. “This shows my office is not going to sit idly by and let these companies steal from the neediest in Alabama,” King said at a news conference Tuesday. The settlements were of some of the more than 70 lawsuits the state filed in 2005 accusing prescription drug companies of committing fraud by causing the state to pay too much for prescription drugs for Medicaid recipients. Companies the state has settled lawsuits with and the amounts include: Roxanne Laboratories/Boehringer Ingelheim, $9.5 million; Bayer Pharmaceuticals, $2 million; Amgen Inc., Immunex, $3.5 million; Bristol-Myers Squibb, $11 million; Ethex Corp./KV Pharmaceuticals, $2 million; and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, $2 million; Dey L.P., $4.75 million. In the case of Roxanne Laboratories/Boehringer Ingelheim and several other companies, the state originally sued two different companies that have since merged. Three of the cases have gone to trial. In February, a Montgomery jury ordered the U.S. subsidiary of British drug maker AstraZeneca to pay the state $215 million. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Charles Price cut the award to $160 million. In a trial in June, a jury ordered GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis to pay the state more than $114 million in damages. Those verdicts have been appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. King defended the amount being paid to the two law firms, saying the two firms initially agreed to absorb the expenses of investigating the cases until damages were recovered. “The state doesn’t have $4 million hanging around to bring these kind of lawsuits,” King said. Jere Beasley of Beasley Allen said the amount of the attorney fees is justified. He said the actual fees, not counting expenses, are 14 percent of the amount recovered, which he said is lower than the 33 percent or more attorneys often receive in these types of cases. “The work was overwhelmingly difficult and time consuming. There are few firms that can handle litigation of this magnitude,” Beasley said. The lawsuit against Roxanne Laboratories had been scheduled to be tried in Price’s Montgomery courtroom beginning Feb. 9. Also scheduled for that day before Price is the trial of the state’s lawsuit against Sandoz Inc. King said the state plans to go ahead with the trial of the case against Sandoz.

Related Articles Read More >

This is a photo of the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies plant under construction in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
Fujifilm, Regeneron ink $3B U.S. manufacturing agreement
This is the logo of Johnson & Johnson.
J&J breaks ground on $2B manufacturing facility in North Carolina
sherwin-williams-pharma-facility (1)
Sherwin-Williams expands flooring solutions for pharma facilities
PHARMAP 2025: Pharma leaders converge in Berlin for fifth anniversary summit
“ppw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news, technologies, and developments in Pharmaceutical Processing.

DeviceTalks Tuesdays

DeviceTalks Tuesdays

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • DeviceTalks
  • MassDevice
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • MEDICAL TUBING + EXTRUSION
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medtech100 Index
  • R&D 100 Awards

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Pharmaceutical Processing World

  • Home
  • Regulatory
    • Recalls
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Facility
  • Supply Chain
  • Equipment and Materials
  • Contract Manufacturing
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE