Daily Times Herald (Newspaper) - October 10, 2007, Carroll, Iowa Daily Times Herald Iowa October 2007 Single Copy 500 Iowa sues drug alleging inflated prices DBS Iowa AP Drug companies inflated prices of prescription drugs by millions of caus ing state and federal govern ments to overpay for medi cine prescribed for Medicaid a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Tom Miller on Tuesday The filed in District alleges that 79 drug companies intention ally deceived the state Med which pays for medical care and drugs for the elderly and The lawsuit claims breach of unjust en richment and violations of federal Medicaid laws and the Iowa Consumer Fraud It asks the court to perma stop the companies from inflating drug prices and to award the state punitive and compensatory It also seeks reimbursement of any illegal profits from the alleged scheme and restitution for the overcharged Miller said it is too early to determine how much money Iowa stands to recover if the lawsuit is but he hopes to recover millions of The state of Texas recently a similar case with drug companies for Miller The state has contracted with the New York law firm of Kirby Mclnerney LLP because of its experience with cases against drug The lawsuit will likely be combined in Massachusetts federal court with similar cas es filed in more than 20 other Miller Iowa paid billion for prescription drugs between 1992 and 2005 for Medicaid the lawsuit About 63 percent of Med funding comes from the federal The pro gram is administered by the Iowa Department of Human We allege in our lawsuit that the prescription drug companies didnt give the average price as required by law but went north of that and in some cases very far north of Miller In one allegedly reported to the state an average whole sale price of for a vial of a drug used to treat stomach when the company sold the drug to re tail pharmacists for a 307 percent Pfizer allegedly told the state its average wholesale price for the anxiety drug Al also sold as was when it sold the same drug to pharmacists for a percent in Miller These are somewhat ex treme but they give you the idea that the price reported was not the price that should have been reported and that became the basis for paying for the drug through out me state of he Pfizer spokesman Chris Loder said the allegations made by the state of Iowa are misplaced and without legal The average wholesale price has been used for de cades by the the federal government and commercial payers as a benchmark for re he Similar prices also are used in the Medicare program and in commercial he The state of Iowa is well aware that the does not reflect the lowest price avail able for a medicine or the actual acquisition cost by which a pharmacy can obtain that he Yet it now pretends to have no such The state legisla not the are the proper forum for addressing these reimbursement Iowa astronaut to take command of space station Kazakhstan AP A Russian rocket blast ed off from a launch facility in Kazakhstan on carrying an a Rus sian and a Malaysian to the international space The rocket soared into a darkening sky above the Kazakh Aboard were Peggy Whitson of who will be the first woman to com mand the space vet eran Russian cosmonaut Yuri and Sheikh the ninth Muslim in space but the first from They will arrive in two The with the last days of the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until but Malaysian clerics decreed that Sheikh will be excused from fasting while in His religion also requires that he face Mecca for prayer a direction that will change as die spacecraft orbits the Earth but clerics decided that the exact location matters only for the beginning of the prayer Applause broke out among space officials and other onlookers at the launch Sheikh parents watched the liftoff from an observation praying and in Im happy for my coun for for the United States and his father Whitson and will stay on as the stations new replacing cosmonauts Fyodor and Oleg and will be joined in Oc tober by astronaut Daniel who is arriving with the space shuttle Tani will replace fellow American Clayton who has been at the station since Sheikh a 35 yearold orthopedic is to spend about 10 days on the performing ex and the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and On he told re porters that his trip will be an inspiration for his southeast Asian nation as well as to other Muslims all over the Its a small step for but a great leap for the Malaysian he ing Neil Armstrongs famous words after die Apollo landing on the The million agreement for a Malaysian astronaut to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 along with a million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter Ethanol production may threaten water supplies WASHINGTON AP When it comes to solving the fossil fuel it seems like every silver lining comes ac companied by a dark As attention turns more and more toward using corn and other products to produce ethanol for experts warn that increased production of these crops could pose a threat to water Both water quality and the availability of water could be threatened by sharply increas ing crops such as said Jerald professor of environmental engineering and codirector of the Center for Global and Regional En Research at the University of See WATER on Pace 8 Special attention Dally Times Herald photos by Larry Devine Catholic Grade Mattie Pot thoff daughter of Scott and Cathy holds one of her terrier mixes following the of Assisi feast last Mass was on the lawn between the school and Law Students and the public were invited to bring Mts or a favorite toy stuffed animal for blessing fol In the Deacon Tim Murphy talk 5edabOut Francis love of Also pictured holding and are from left Ashley daughter of Alan and Cheryl Schul arid Mara daughter of Kevin Masching and Jacque Related photos on Page Funeral held for 2 slain in security firm shooting BAGHDAD AP Weep ing mourners called for justice Wednesday at a funeral for two Armenian Christian women killed while driving in Bagh dad the second shooting of civilians involving a secu rity firm linked to govern work in Iraq in less than a The funeral Mass for Ma rou and Geneva who died in Tuesdays shoot was held at the Virgin Mary three daughters cried and other fe male relatives wailed over the adorned only with a golden Iraqi authorities blamed the deaths on guards working for Unity Resources a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in the United Arab which provides pro for contractor RTI said an investigation was under but initial findings showed its security team fired after a car to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal Statements from both Unity and RTI have made clear the Jump in heating costs predicted NEW YORK AP Almost all Americans will pay a lot more to heat their homes this even though tem are expected to be warmer than Thats the sobering message from an Energy Department report Tuesday that estimates heating oil costs are likely to jump 22 percent and natural gas on will rise 10 percent between October and And while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a milder than average winter in most parts of the the agency also predicted Tuesday that temperatures will be percent colder than last In where about 40 percent of hom rely on oil for consumers are bracing for price said Michael Fer president of the Mas a trade They are button ing up their houses even they are turning down their they are wearing he Surging prices are the but not the culprit for the jump in This spring and sum American refineries expe an unusual number of unexpected maintenance out The net result was that fewer refineries were produc ing heating oil and other petroleum The outages sent gasoline prices to a record a gallon in late May as refiners scrambled to produce enough gasoline to meet peak sum Because they used every ounce of the refinery to pro duce it came at the expense of distillate fuels like home heating said Phil an analyst at Alaron Trading in Despite the government prices have actually been mostly falling in recent Inventories remained high as new sources of natural gas were tapped this year and a cooler summer depressed We could have re cord storage by the beginning of said Tim an analyst at Citigroup in New But all of that could turn around if oil prices stay high and electricity plant opera tors switch to natural gas for units that can burn either said Ron CEO of See HEATING on Page 8 Weather Tonight Mostly Cloudy Low 40 Partly Sunny High 55 Couples deal 199 Daily Times Herald 7923573
