Boehringer accused of price inflation

Boehringer accused of price inflation

	Published : Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:32 By : Agencies Print this Story

BOSTON (AFX) - Federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit against Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. and related entities, alleging that the pharmaceutical company inflated prices for several of its drugs.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston said it has intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit originally filed by a Florida company, Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc., and its principals.

In its suit filed Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleges that Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane engaged in a scheme to report fraudulent and inflated prices for several products, knowing that federal health care programs established reimbursement rates based on those reported prices.

Roxane, based in Columbus, Ohio, sells generic drugs that are reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid, two federal health care programs.

The difference between the government reimbursement rates and the actual price paid by healthcare providers for a drug is referred to as the 'spread.' The larger the spread on a drug, the larger the profit for the provider.

The government claims that Roxane used artificially inflated spreads to market, promote and sell the drugs to existing and potential customers. Because reimbursement from federal programs was based on the fraudulent prices, prosecutors claim that Roxane caused false claims to be submitted to federal healthcare programs.

'Roxane Laboratories maintains the highest ethical standards in sales and marketing practices and is committed to making generic medications available to Medicaid beneficiaries throughout the United States at prices that save the states and patients millions of dollars each year,' the company said in a statement.

'The company has at all times complied with the tangle of laws and rules imposed by the federal government and the fifty states for the Medicaid program, and has paid millions of dollars in rebates to the states on drug purchases.'

The company said it had not yet seen the government's lawsuit, 'but we are disappointed in the government's apparent decision to join in a lawsuit filed almost ten years ago.'