Glaxo settles price fixing cases for $70m

News Article - 14 August 2006
Category: Regulatory

British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (Glaxo) has settled a number of price fixing law suits brought against it in the US.

A number of private individuals, health authorities and insurance firms brought claims against the firm for allegedly inflating the price of some of its medicines artificially.

The company has agreed to a settlement of $70 million to resolve all the cases brought as part of the class-action.

It said the payout would be covered by its existing legal reserve.

The cases against Glaxo centred on the setting of average whole sale prices (AWP) of some of its drugs.

They claimed that the AWP of some products had been overpriced, resulting in overpayments to doctors and pharmacies.

In a statement, the company said that it had "agreed to settle the cases, without admitting any wrongdoing, to put this historical matter behind it".

It added that it was "widely known for years that AWP exceeds the prices actually paid by physicians, pharmacies and others".

The latest settlement follows a major payment in September to settle a price fixing case brought against it by the US government.

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