Price of the Pricing

Bristol-Myers Squib, AstraZeneca ordered to pay $13.6 million in drug pricing suit.

A "federal judge has ordered drug companies AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squib to pay a combined $13.6 million in a Massachusetts case that alleged they inflating the so-called 'average wholesale price' of expensive, and sometimes life-saving, drugs."

In her opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris wrote that both companies "caused 'real injuries to the insurers and the patients who were paying grossly inflated prices for critically important, often life-sustaining drugs.'"

She "said she decided to double the damages because the conduct was willful on the part of the companies." AstraZeneca did not respond to an AP inquiry, but "Bristol-Myers Squib said its pricing was fair," and indicated that the company plans to appeal.