N.H. gets $85k in Glaxo settlement

New Hampshire will get more than $85,000 from pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to settle claims it overcharged Medicaid and Medicare for two anti-nausea drugs, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte announced yesterday.

New Hampshire is one of several states sharing in a total $149 million national settlement. Some $23 million of the money will go to the individual states, the rest to the federal government.

According to Ayotte, Glaxo engaged in a scheme to inflate the price of the anti-nausea drugs Zofran and Kytril for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which reimburse health-care providers based on the manufacturers’ prices. The drugs, typically administered in doctors’ offices or hospitals, are used mainly to counter nausea brought on by chemotherapy and radiation.

The company charged health-care providers less for the drugs, knowing the providers would get to pocket the difference and would be more likely to prescribe them again, Ayotte said.

Glaxo admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which covers claims submitted from 1994 to 2002. – JEFF FEINGOLD