US DHHS says Medicare overpaid for drug

The US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General has claimed in a report that global behemoth Pfizer overcharged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the cancer drug Camptosar (irinotecan). The federal government could have saved $6.5 million in March this year if the CMS had revised its payment structure to reflect generic competition for the oncology compound, which was cleared on February 20.

The Inspector General pointed to a two-month delay in applying generic drug prices to its reimbursement formula for the overspending and called upon the CMS to devise a formula that is quicker to take advantage of off-patent product competition, Bloomberg News reports.