Trial Court awards $38.2 million to the State of Mississippi in Beasley Allen Medicaid fraud lawsuit*
MONTGOMERY, ALA. (September 2, 2011) – Today Judge Thomas L. Zebert found in favor of the State of Mississippi in its case against pharmaceutical company Sandoz, Inc. in the Chancery Court of Rankin County, Mississippi, and awarded a total verdict of $38,191, 427.00. The case, Mississippi Medicaid Pharmaceutical Average Wholesale Price Litigation (Master Docket No. 65586-65632, 66312, 66313, 66314) involves allegations that Sandoz caused to be published inflated “Average Wholesale Prices” (AWPs) for the drugs manufactured by Sandoz, which resulted in the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) reimbursing pharmacies at an inflated price, all allegedly in violation of the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act; the Mississippi Medicaid Fraud Control act and common law fraud. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood authorized the filing of these lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies and Beasley Allen attorneys W. Daniel “Dee” Miles, III and Clay Barnett, along with former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove from Copeland, Cook, Taylor and Bush tried the three-week trial in April.
