Drugmaker to pay MO in Medicaid settlement

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Alpharma Inc. will pay Missouri $840,000 as part of a national settlement related to accusations of Medicaid fraud.
Attorney General Chris Koster announced the settlement payment March 18.
Alpharma is accused of making fraudulent or false claims regarding Kadian, its morphine sulfate product, so that it would be paid for by the Medicaid program.
According to the release, Koster alleged that between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 29, 2008, Alpharma offered and paid for training programs, consulting forums, research grants and speakers' bureaus, making or disseminating false statements about the drug's safety and efficacy, in a bid to induce health providers to prescribe Kadian.
"In these difficult budget times, the last thing states can afford to do is pay for pharmaceuticals that have been marketed in unfair ways to Medicaid providers," Koster said in a news release. "We will continue to protect Missouri Medicaid's budget by recovering expenses that were fraudulently obtained."
The state will return a portion of the settlement payment to the federal government, which shares Medicaid costs with states, the release said.