Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay $784.6 million to resolve a 14-year-old lawsuit claiming its Wyeth unit overcharged the government by hiding the discounts it was giving hospitals for drugs used to treat acid-related damage to the esophagus.
The hidden discounts meant that Medicaid paid “hundred of millions of dollars” more for the drugs than it should have from 2001 to 2006, according to a statement Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston. Pfizer, which acquired Wyeth in 2009, announced the broad terms of the agreement in February. The accord covers bundled discounts given for Protonix Oral and Protonix IV.
