Boston, MA, March 4, 2011 – A federal court certified a class of cities, counties, and other government entities that allegedly overpaid for prescription drugs as a result of overcharges by McKesson Corporation, the largest drug wholesaler in the country.
Plaintiffs allege that McKesson fraudulently inflated certain prescription drugs’ “Average Wholesale Price,” or “AWP” – a benchmark that was widely used by self-insured governmental entities, insurers, and others to determine the reimbursement price for most prescription medications. As a result of the AWP scheme, Plaintiffs allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges.
The named plaintiffs for the certified class are the Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County, Kansas; the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Panama City, Florida; Anoka County, Minnesota; the City of Columbia, South Carolina; and the City of Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The plaintiff class is represented by Kotchen & Low LLP; Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman, LLC; Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, LLP; and McCulley McCluer, PLLC.
See In re McKesson Governmental Entities Average Wholesale Price Litigation, No. 08-cv-10843-PBS, 2011 WL 758858, __ F. Supp. 2d __ (D. Mass. Mar. 4, 2011).