SACRAMENTO, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- California has added 38 drug companies to a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding the state with inflated prescription drug prices.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer says alleged cost markups may have resulted in overpayments worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's $35 billion Medi-Cal program for the poor, elderly and disabled.
The suit claims the companies, including Abbott Laboratories and a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb, "gouged" California by improperly boosting reimbursement rates to pharmacists and retailers that serve Medi-Cal patients.
Lockyer contends those rates are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of times more than the retailers actually pay for the medicines, the San Jose Mercury News said.
For example, he cited the hypertension drug Atenolol for which retailers pay $33.85 for a bottle of 50 milligram tablets, while Medi-Cal reimburses pharmacists $804.70 -- a 2,277 percent markup.
