Jury now has case against two drug companies in Alabama

Date: July 1, 2008 12:00 AM
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June 30, 2008 (AP) MONTGOMERY, Ala.  - Attorneys have completed closing arguments in the trial of the state of Alabama's lawsuit against two prescription drug companies. The jury now has the case.

An attorney for the state of Alabama has asked jurors to make two drug companies pay as much as $800 million in a lawsuit accusing the firms of fraud in Medicaid drug pricing.

The state claims the fraud lasted from 1991 to 2005.

Attorneys for GlaxoSMithKline and Novartis say the prices were proper. Attorney Jere Beasley, representing the state, told jurors in closing arguments Monday that GlaxoSmithKline should have to pay almost $81 million in compensatory damages and as much as $500 million in punitive damages. Beasley said Novartis Pharmaceuticals should have to pay about $33 million in compensatory damages and between up to $200 million in punitive damages.

An attorney for GSK, Don Jones, said the company did nothing wrong and that the lawsuit was about the state trying to make money off the drug companies.

 

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