[T]he state of Vermont will receive a portion of a $465 million national settlement against the pharmaceutical company that manufactures EpiPen.
The state will receive about $983,000 to resolve claims under the state’s False Claims Act against Mylan Specialty L.P., a subsidiary of Mylan, Inc., according to a press release.
The state had alleged that the company “knowingly underpaid” EpiPen rebates to the Vermont Medicaid program, which depends on manufacturer rebates to reduce pharmaceutical spending in the $1.7 billion program.
Vermont gets the rebates because of a 1990 federal law that requires pharmaceutical companies like Mylan to sign a rebate agreement with the U.S. Department of Health of Human Services, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office.
Mylan was required to tell the department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—the federal regulator for Vermont’s Medicaid program—about the drug’s classification as either an “innovator” or “noninnovator” drug, a classification that determines how much Medicaid can get in rebates, according to the Attorney General’s office.
Mylan was also required to report the lowest price that anyone has paid for the EpiPen in a given quarter, according to the Attorney General’s office. However, Mylan reported the wrong classification and did not report its lowest price for EpiPen, according to the Attorney General’s office.
“Mylan submitted or caused to be submitted false statements to CMS and/or the States relating to EpiPen for Medicaid rebate purposes, and underpaid its EpiPen rebates to the state Medicaid programs.
“This settlement resolves allegations that from July 29, 2010, to March 31, 2017, Mylan submitted false statements” to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal regulator for Vermont’s Medicaid program, the Attorney General said in a press release.
