The Justice Department in conjunction with more than a dozen states have accused the mammoth drug company Wyeth with Medicare fraud. The whistleblower lawsuits contend that Wyeth overcharged Medicare programs when they issued massive discounts to thousands of hospitals without offering the same discount to the state Medicare programs.
In offering the discounts, Wyeth was able to avoid paying rebated to state Medicare programs. The controversy involves the Wyeth stomach acid drug Protonix.
Wyeth, in the process of being taken over by Pfizer, is no stranger to controversy. In the late 1990’s Wyeth was involved in the fen-phen diet drug debacle that cost the company millions of dollars in lawsuits.
The states involved in the whistleblower lawsuits include California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.