Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro: Judge Orders Double Damages, Issues Stinging Rebuke in Average Wholesale ...( Court action could set path f...),Health

Court action could set path for future, national litigation.

BOSTON, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Today a U.S. District Court Judge awarded consumers millions of dollars in damages against drug giants AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and Bristol-Myers Squib (NYSE: BMY) for the companies' role in unfair trade practices involving the pricing of drugs in an important state case that could have major implications in future litigation.

On June 21, 2007, Judge Patti Saris ruled that AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb grossly inflated the prices of a number of expensive physician-administered drugs, and today ordered the companies pay nearly $14 million, including a doubling of some damages against both defendants.

"We are absolutely ecstatic about Judge Saris' ruling today," said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "Judge Saris agreed with our damage estimates and did not pull punches in her characterization of the defendants' actions."

In her 30-page order, Judge Saris said "the defendants well understood the devastating impact the mega-spreads had on old and sick patients required to make co-payments they could ill afford."

The two classes affected by today's ruling include third-party payors in Massachusetts that reimbursed Medicare beneficiaries for their statutory twenty percent coinsurance, and all third-party payors and consumers in Massachusetts who made coinsurance payments based on AWP.