Mar 152012

Former Wisconsin AG Files Qui Tam Suit Against Drug Companies

Scott D. Stein
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A Wisconsin court recently unsealed a qui tam complaint alleging that several pharmaceutical manufacturers violated Wisconsin’s version of the False Claims Act by publishing false “average wholesale prices” (AWPs) for their drugs, on which the State Medicaid program relied to establish drug reimbursement. This is not the first suit based on allegedly false AWPs. Indeed, AWP litigation has been raging in state and federal courts for the better part of the last decade. But what makes this case unusual is that the qui tam relator is the former Attorney General of Wisconsin, Peggy A. Lautenschlager. As Ms. Lautenschlager notes in the first paragraph of the complaint, it was under her term as Attorney General that the State of Wisconsin sued 38 other drug companies in 2004 for the same alleged conduct. These facts would appear to present obvious problems for the former Attorney General under Wisconsin’s public disclosure bar, but it will be interesting to watch this suit play out.

Scott D. Stein

Chicago

sstein@sidley.com

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