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www.fdanews.com/articles/96326-bms-resolves-average-wholesale-price-lawsuit-for-13-million

BMS Resolves Average Wholesale Price Lawsuit for $13 Million

July 25, 2007

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) will pay $13 million to resolve a class action lawsuit claiming that it overcharged for its cancer drugs, although the company admitted no wrongdoing. 

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of consumers who made copayments under Medicare Part B for BMS’ cancer drugs. The complaint alleges that BMS artificially inflated the drugs’ average wholesale prices (AWPs), often used as a benchmark for determining reimbursement rates for physicians and pharmacies.

Last month, Judge Patti Saris ordered BMS, AstraZeneca and Schering-Plough to pay damages for overcharging for drugs by artificially inflating their AWPs. Saris ruled that BMS overcharged for cancer drugs Taxol (paclitaxel), Vepesid (etoposide), Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide), Blenoxane (bleomycin sulfate) and Rubex (doxorubicin), according to the ruling.

The ruling noted that Vepesid had the largest price markup of all the companies’ drugs at more than 1,000 percent. The other companies’ markups ranged from 28 percent to 676 percent.