Sanofi aventis settles pricing civil suits with US DoJ

French pharmaceutical firm sanofi-aventis has announced that it has reached a civil settlement with the US department of justice (DoJ) over average wholesale price (AWP) lawsuits.

The lawsuits concerned one of the sanofi-aventis predecessors, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, the product Anzemet, and the idea that Aventis Pharmaceuticals had artificially inflated the price of the product.

This meant that the company received larger government reimbursements for the drug, which in turn lead to the False Claims Act lawsuits. The settlement period is September 1st 1997 to June 30th 2004 – before sanofi-aventis was formed.

As a result of the settlement, sanofi-aventis will now pay $182.82 million (90.3 million pounds), comprised of $172.6 million to the US government and the remainder to a fund to cover any outstanding Medicaid payments.

Anzemet was introduced to help cancer patients receiving chemotherapy reduce the nausea and vomiting that in some instances occurs.

According to the sanofi-aventis website, the firm is the number one pharmaceutical company in Europe.