Big Pharma charged with fraud

This is an alert from the Taxpayer's Against Fraud based out of the United States with a link from the PharmLive website:

The Attorney General of South Carolina, Henry McMaster announced today that the State of South Carolina has filed a lawsuit to recover over $40 million in taxpayer funds. McMaster believes several pharmaceutical companies fraudulently manipulated the prices of Medicaid and State Health Plan prescription drug claims.

[...]

The Attorney General’s office began reviewing this matter approximately one year ago. The defendants named in the State’s lawsuit are:

Abbott Laboratories, Inc.;
Baxter International, Inc. and its subsidiary Baxter Healthcare Corporation;
Dey, L.P., formerly known as Dey Laboratories;
Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc. and its subsidiaries Roxane Laboratories, Inc. and Ben Venue Laboratories, Inc.;
Schering-Plough Corporation and its subsidiaries Warrick Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Schering Corporation.

Since 1995, South Carolina Medicaid has spent over $300 million on prescription drugs from these companies and the State Health Plan of South Carolina has spent over $100 million.

The State will allege that the pharmaceutical companies intentionally misreported the average wholesale price (AWP) of selected drugs which increased the reimbursements paid by Medicaid and the State Health Plans, thereby overcharging South Carolina taxpayers over $40 million dollars.

Boy, wouldn't it be nice if Ontario's Attorney General made such announcements?