22nd Feb 2008 07:00
AstraZeneca PLC22 February 2008 ASTRAZENECA TO APPEAL JUDGMENT IN ALABAMA MEDICAL PRICING CASE AstraZeneca today announced it intends to seek reconsideration or reversal of averdict in the Montgomery County Circuit Court awarding $40 million incompensatory damages and $175 million in punitive damages for alleged false andmisleading reporting of prices for drugs reimbursed by the Alabama StateMedicaid Agency in the US. The company was among 73 pharmaceutical manufacturers named in a lawsuit filedin 2005 by the Alabama Attorney General, alleging that misleading and falsereported prices had caused Alabama Medicaid to reimburse pharmacists too muchmoney on prescriptions filed for Medicaid patients. AstraZeneca maintains that this lawsuit is legally and factually unfounded. Thecase was based on the misleading premise that the Alabama State Medicaid Agencydid not understand how drug prices are established and reported. AstraZenecaalso believes serious errors occurred during the proceedings and that theverdict should not be upheld. AstraZeneca believes it has fully complied with the law, government guidelinesand contracts that govern Medicaid pricing. AstraZeneca currently providesmedicines to Medicaid programmes at the lowest price offered to its bestbusiness clients, as federal law requires. AstraZeneca and the State Medicaid programme share a common goal of helpingpeople access the medicines they need. To help patients who have difficultyaffording their medicines, AstraZeneca offers patient assistance programmes sideby side with its medicines. In the last two years alone, Alabama patients havereceived more than $25.5 million in savings through the company's prescriptionsavings programmes. About AstraZeneca AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in research,development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals andsupplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world's leadingpharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US $29.55 billion and is aleader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncologyand infection product sales. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow JonesSustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index. - Ends - 22 February, 2008 Media Enquiries: Steve Brown, +44 207 304 5033 (24 hours) Chris Sampson, +44 20 7304 5130 (24 hours) Neil McCrae, +44 207 304 5045 (24 hours) Investor Enquiries: Jonathan Hunt, +44 207 304 5087 Ed Seage, +1 302 886 4065 Karl Hard, +44 207 304 5322 Jorgen Winroth, +1 212 579 0506 Mina Blair, +44 20 7304 5084 Peter Vozzo, (MedImmune) +1 301 398 4358 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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