AstraZeneca PLC must pay Alabama $215 million after a state court ruled the company inflated prices for drugs it sold to the state's Medicaid system.

UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) on Friday confirmed that it intends to appeal yesterday's verdict by a state court jury in Alabama, which awarded the state $215 million in damages after finding that the company overcharged the Alabama State Medicaid Agency on its Medicaid drug price.

A state-court jury awarded Alabama $215 million in its Medicaid drug-price-fraud suit against an AstraZeneca PLC unit.

A Montgomery County jury hit a big drug maker with a huge two hundred fifteen million dollar verdict Thursday after the state said the company carried out a fraudulent pricing scheme to prey on the poor, the sick and the elderly.

MONTGOMERY - The jury in the Medicaid pharmaceutical fraud trial in Montgomery just moments ago found in favor of Alabama and recommended compensatory damages of $40 million and punitive damages of $175 million.

A state court jury awarded Alabama $215 million Thursday in its Medicaid drug price fraud suit against drugmaker AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. The circuit court jury said the subsidiary of Britain's AstraZeneca PLC must pay $40 million in compensatory damages and $175 million in punitive damages.

MONTGOMERY — The jury in the Medicaid pharmaceutical fraud trial in Montgomery just moments ago found in favor of Alabama and recommended compensatory damages of $40 million and punitive damages of $175 million. The verdict was against AstraZeneca Corp., a drug manufacturer the state sued along with about 75 other drug manufacturers, alleging they overcharged Alabama’s Medicaid program for prescription drugs.

The jury is out in the Medicaid pharmaceutical fraud trial in Montgomery, with the attorney for the state asking for $39 million in compensatory damages and between $140 million and $250 million in punitive damages.

A recent story about how an insurance company refused to pay for a procedure that could have saved a young girl's life is very sad.

The billions that state officials had once coveted from the largest jury verdict in Alabama history is now a scrap over millions.