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|  |  Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox Distributes $901,000 Cardizem Settlement to Michigan ConsumersPR Newswire July 18, 2005 3,529 Consumers Compensated for Artificially Inflated Drug Costs LANSING, Mich., July 18, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced today the distribution of more than $24 million in antitrust settlement funds to consumers nationwide who purchased Cardizem CD, a prescription heart medication. An aggregate total of more than $901,000 is directed to 3,529 Michigan consumers. "This settlement stands as a warning that anticompetitive behavior will not be tolerated," said Cox. "My office is committed to continuing to aggressively protect consumers from this sort of unfair activity." The distribution is a result of a 2003 settlement in a case co-led by New York and Michigan against two pharmaceutical companies, Aventis and Andrx. The case charged that beginning in July 1998, Hoechst, a pharmaceutical company acquired by Aventis in 2000, paid Andrx to not market a generic version of Cardizem CD. The delay in the availability of the generic form of Cardizem CD caused consumers, medical insurance companies, and the government to purchase the higher-priced brand name version of the drug for at least an extra year. Consumers are being reimbursed for overpayments made for Cardizem CD and its generic equivalents between 1998 and 2004. Nationwide, the distribution will compensate more than 76,000 individuals. The states' plan to distribute money to consumers was approved by United States Eastern District of Michigan Judge Nancy Edmunds on May 31, 2005, after the United States Supreme Court refused to review judicial approval of the settlement. Later this year, settlement money will also be distributed to third party purchasers, a group consisting primarily of medical insurance companies and self-insured health plans. In addition, approximately $4.5 million will be distributed among the states to reimburse certain government purchasers for their damages. Further details are available on the settlement administration's Web site, http://www.cardizemsettlement.com. During 2003 and 2004, the Consumer Protection Division collected more than $600 million on behalf of Michigan. In 2004, the Division stopped more than $400 million in utility rate increases and responded to more than 102,000 consumer complaints. CONTACT: Allison Pierce of Michigan Attorney General's office,+1-517-373-8060 Web site: http://www.michigan.gov/ag/http://www.cardizemsettlement.com//
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