Big Pharma has not yet figured out that the Bush years are over. Their flip-flopping on cutting costs shows an industry in disarray. The world of Big Pharma is so bizarre these days that they are even giving away free viagra to the unemployed. Republicans have never had the stomach to demand cost control from any part of the health care industry, preferring to throw the burden on consumers to try and negotiate against one of the most firmly entrenched industries in the US. That was a fixed fight if ever there was one. The latest edition of elections matter.
The Justice Department on Monday accused Wyeth, one of the nation's biggest drugmakers, of cheating Medicaid programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars by overcharging for a stomach acid drug.
The Justice Department and more than a dozen states have joined in two whistleblower lawsuits against the Madison, N.J.-based drug company filed in federal court in Massachusetts.
The government is seeking financial penalties against the company of up to three times the amount lost by Medicaid. And if a settlement is reached, the two whistleblowers who filed the original suits likely would be entitled to some share of the sum.
