A subsidiary of Pfizer could pay more than $153 million to the state of Wisconsin for artificially inflating prescription drug prices for years, the attorney general said Tuesday.
A Dane County jury ruled Monday night that Pharmacia Inc. had violated the state's Medicaid fraud law more than 1.4 million times over a decade. Each violation carries a minimum of a $100 fine and a maximum of $15,000.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said that means the company will be required to pay at least $144 million when a judge sets fines in coming weeks unless a settlement is reached.
For example, Pharmacia sold the breast cancer drug Adriamycin for as little as $33.43, according to the lawsuit. But it listed the wholesale price as $241.36 so providers could get reimbursed for that amount.
It then advertised the $207-plus spread to cancer doctors to give them a financial incentive to provide the drug. The schemes were meant to increase the drugs' market share, and profit along with that, the lawsuit said.
The jury also ordered the company to pay $9 million in damages to compensate the state for its losses.
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