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The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

Sanofi-Aventis

Misreporting Prices for Nasal Sprays

Date: 05/28/2009 (Date of Announcement)

Misconduct Type: Government Contract Fraud

Enforcement Agency: Health and Human Servs.

Contracting Party: None

Court Type: Civil

Amount: $95,500,000

Disposition: Settlement

Synopsis: Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc., a subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, agreed to pay the United States $95.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misreporting drug prices in order to reduce its Medicaid Drug Rebate obligations. The government alleged that between 1995 and 2000, Aventis and its corporate predecessors knowingly misreported best prices for its steroid-based, anti-inflammatory nasal sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ. The Medicaid Drug Rebate Statute requires drug manufacturers to report to Medicaid the lowest, or "best," price that it charges commercial customers and pay quarterly rebates to the states based on those reported prices. It was alleged that, in order to avoid triggering a new best price that would obligate it to pay millions of dollars in additional rebates to Medicaid, Aventis entered into "private label" agreements with Kaiser Permanente that repackaged Aventis’s drugs under a new label.