Jackson, MS—Attorney General Jim Hood today announced two more settlements in the ongoing Average Whole Price (AWP) litigation.  The Attorney General?s Office successfully negotiated these two settlements, involving three pharmaceutical manufacturers, which will put $6,032,000 into the State?s coffers.

The money comes from recently settled cases in the AWP litigation involving Medicaid Fraud claims and Consumer Protection Violations with three drug companies: Par Pharmaceutical Co., Alpharma USPD, Inc., n/k/a Actavis Mid-Atlantic, LLC, and Purepac Pharmaceutical Co., n/k/a Actavis Elizabeth, LLC.

?Evidence has shown that some of these pharmaceutical manufacturers reported prices inflated as much as 1200% over their actual costs,? said Attorney General Hood.  ?In our commitment to protecting the taxpayers of Mississippi, we are pleased to return millions of their hard-earned dollars to the state?s coffers.?

This comes on the heel of a verdict in September by Judge Thomas L. Zebert in favor of the State of Mississippi in another AWP case against pharmaceutical company Sandoz Inc. 

The Attorney General?s Office initiated the AWP litigation in 2005 and has previously settled with eight other companies (Dey; Amgen/Immunex; Baxter/Boehringer/Roxanne; Abbott; Mylan; GlaxoSmithKline; Aventis; Schering/Schering-Plough/Warrick) for a total of ten formalized settlements and a net recovery to the State?s coffers of approximately $45 Million. 

There are 44 remaining defendants in the litigation.

The Attorney General?s Office has recovered more than $500 Million in taxpayer dollars since Attorney General Hood took office in 2004.