U.S. states say Wyeth withheld millions in rebates

A coalition of 15 U.S. states filed a complaint in federal court charging that drugmaker Wyeth avoided paying millions of dollars of rebates to state Medicaid programs that had purchased its Protonix drugs, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said on Monday.

The complaint, filed in U.S. district court in Massachusetts, charges the company failed to give the government the same discounts it offered to hospital chains and other private purchasers of the drugs.

“The Medicaid program requires pharmaceutical companies to provide the same discounts and rebates to the state Medicaid program as they do to their large commercial customers,” Coakley said in a statement.

The District of Columbia also joined the complaint.

BOSTON (Reuters)