Pfizer to Pay $784.6 Million for FCA Charges

As expected, Pfizer will pay $784.6 million to settle Justice Department allegations that a subsidiary deliberately reported inflated prices to Medicaid for two drugs.

The deal announced last week, which has been in negotiations for months, requires Pfizer to pay the federal government $412.24 million and state Medicaid programs $371.35 million in exchange for the Justice Department dropping its investigation into Wyeth’s pricing practices.

According to the Justice Department, Wyeth violated the False Claims Act by failing to disclose to Medicaid discounted prices for the acid reflux drugs Protonix Oral and Protonix IV, leading Medicaid to overpay hundreds of millions of dollars for the drugs between 2001 and 2009. Pfizer, which acquired Wyeth in 2009, does not deny the allegations.