Ohio to Receive $15.6 Million in Medicaid Settlement with Drug Company Bristol-Myers Squibb

September 28, 2007 -- COLUMBUS -- Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann announced today that he and his counterparts from across the country have reached an agreement in principle with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (“BMS”) to repay that states’ Medicaid programs more than $400 million. The settlement will resolve allegations that the company participated in various activities that resulted in overpayments by the Medicaid programs.

The specific allegations being resolved include the following:

• that BMS and a former subsidiary company, Apothecon, Inc., provided false pricing information to price reporting services that resulted in the Medicaid programs paying inflated prices for BMS’s and Apothecon’s pharmaceutical products

• that BMS illegally marketed its atypical antipsychotic drug, Abilify, for pediatric and dementia-related purposes that had not been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration

• that BMS and Apothecon provided various types of remuneration to physicians and pharmacists to induce them to prescribe and dispense BMS and Apothecon products in violation of federal and state laws

• that BMS violated the requirements of the federal Medicaid drug rebate statute by failing to accurately report the ‘best price” at which it sold its drug, Serzone, resulting in the Medicaid programs receiving fewer rebates for the drug than they were entitled to receive

The total value of the settlement to the states’ Medicaid programs is $403 million, plus interest.

The Ohio Medicaid program will receive $15.6 million of the settlement proceeds.

Attorney General Dann’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, along with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s from New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Mexico led the negotiations for the states that resulted in this outcome.

Source: Ohio Attorney General