McMaster Announces $40 Million Suit Against Drug Companies

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Attorney General Henry McMaster said Thursday he will sue to recover at least $40 million in public funds he said have been lost because companies inflated prescription drug prices.

McMaster said five drug companies inflated the average wholesale price of some drugs a pharmacy charges a patient's health plan.

The companies named in the suit are: Abbott Laboratories, Inc.; Baxter International, Inc., and its subsidiary Baxter Healthcare Corporation; Dey, L.P., formerly known as Dey Laboratories; Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc. and its subsidiaries Roxane Laboratories, Inc. and Ben Venue Laboratories, Inc.; and Schering-Plough Corporation and its subsidiaries Warrick Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Schering Corporation.

The lawsuit says the price inflation overcharged South Carolina Medicaid and the State Health Plan to pay for the prescription drugs.

South Carolina's Medicaid program has spent more than $300 million on prescription drugs from the five companies named as defendants.

The State Health Plan has spent more than $100 million.

The plans cover nearly 30 percent of all South Carolinians.

None of the companies are based in South Carolina.