LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska will receive $1.48 million from a pharmaceutical company to settle allegations that the drug maker knowingly underpaid rebates owned to the Nebraska’s Medicaid drug rebate program.
Attorney General Doug Peterson announced the agreement Monday with Wyeth, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc.
The rebates in questions were for the drugs Protnix Oral and Protonix IV between 2001 and 2006. The settlement is part of a larger, nationwide agreement where Wyeth and Pfizer will pay $784.6 million to the federal and state governments.
The settlement arose from two whistleblower lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts. The federal governments and 35 states, including Nebraska, intervened in the case.
The rebate program was enacted by Congress in 1990 as a cost containment measure for Medicaid’s payment for outpatient drugs.
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