McKesson agrees to $350 million settlement

Without admitting guilt, pharmaceutical distributor McKesson has agreed to settle a suit brought against it by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund, to the tune of $350 million.

The suit claimed that McKesson conspired with First DataBank in 2001 to artificially raise the spread between wholesale average prices and wholesale average costs of medications, giving pharmacies a bigger profit margin and encouraging them to work with McKesson. First DataBank already settled a similar suit against it in 2006, though it only had to pay $1 million, along with agreeing to fix the mark-up on many drugs on its list.

Meanwhile, McKesson has already set aside a reported $143 million for state and federal suits brought against it on the same charges. It of course continues to deny all charges.

To learn more about the settlement:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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