Sanofi settles Medicaid price investigation

French drug major Sanofi-Aventis\' US subsidiary has announced a civil settlement with the Department of Justice and the Attorney\'s Office for  the District of Massachusetts to resolve a Medicaid \"best price\"  investigation involving one of its predecessor companies, Aventis  Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The settlement ends an investigation into whether sales by API of  certain products to a managed care organization for resale under that  group\'s private label should have been included in the \"best price\"  calculations used to compute Medicaid rebates for API products. Though  Sanofi believes API acted in accordance with the law at the time, it  elected to resolve this legacy matter through this settlement, without  admitting any wrongdoing.

The agreement calls for payment of $95.5 million (plus interest), which  includes around $55.5 million to resolve all federal claims and the  establishment of an \"opt-in\" fund of approximately $40.0 million for  states desiring to resolve Medicaid rebate claims relating to the same  conduct. The total amount of the settlement is fully covered by  existing reserves.