NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City has won nearly $70 million from 44 pharmaceutical companies in a Medicaid fraud lawsuit over the pricing of prescription drugs.
The New York City Law Department said Thursday that the city has already been paid about $60 million with the last settlements being processed.
The case was first filed nearly nine years ago.
City lawyers alleged the companies fraudulently reported inflated drug prices called Average Wholesale Prices, or AWPs. They say the inflations were sometimes thousands of percentage points over the true AWPs. By law, AWP forms the basis for most Medicaid drug reimbursement to doctors and pharmacists.
City lawyers said that since generic drug prices were inflated the most, nearly $49 million in settlements came from seven pharmaceutical companies that manufactured generic drugs.
