Though it appears we are still not going to see any significant justice wrought in the ongoing EpiPen price gouging scandal, there is a small bit of good news coming to light in the form of a settlement reached in a case against the pharmacy company.
Mylan has agreed to pay out $465 million in a settlement to various federal agencies after it was argued that they had not paid the fair amount to Medicaid. The lawsuit was lodged by the Department of Justice which argued that Mylan bent the rules of classification in order to avoid paying correct rebates to Medicaid.
Though EpiPen is a name-brand prescription, Mylan treated it like a generic, paying nearly half the Medicaid rebate required by law.
Though Mylan is paying big for the settlement, terms of the agreement state that Mylan is claiming no wrongdoing.
According to the Huffington Post:
“The Medicaid rebate for a generic is 13 percent compared with a minimum 23.1 percent for a branded drug. Mylan said will record a pre-tax charge of about $465 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30.”
This settlement comes at an interesting time, shortly after scandal about the EpiPen’s dramatic price gouging came to light. Now that we know Mylan ripped off both the American people and the federal government, we can only hope that more action is taken against this Big Pharma fraud.
