The United States and 16 states joined in two separate False Claims Act suits filed in Massachusetts against Wyeth, alleging that the company failed to give the government the same discounts it provided to private purchasers of its Protonix acid reflux drugs, as required by laws governing the Medicaid program. As a result, Wyeth allegedly avoided paying hundreds of millions in rebates due to state Medicaid programs between 2000 and 2006. In May 2010, 17 other states filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuits. In 2016, Pfizer’s Wyeth subsidiary (Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009) agreed to settle the litigation for $784.6 million.