{"id":72968,"date":"2026-06-29T21:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/72968\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:49:10","slug":"astrazeneca-to-pay-34m-to-settle-kickback-charges-filed-by-texas-ag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/72968\/","title":{"rendered":"AstraZeneca to pay $34M to settle kickback charges filed by Texas AG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-bio\">Ed\u2019s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He is also the author of the morning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/signup\/pharmalittle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pharmalittle newsletter<\/a> and the afternoon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/signup\/pharmalot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pharmalot newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>AstraZeneca agreed to pay $34 million to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/press\/Settlement_2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">settle<\/a> claims that the company paid kickbacks to improperly influence prescriptions paid for by Texas Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>The state had alleged that the drugmaker paid the kickbacks in the form of a free network of nurses and insurance support services to boost prescriptions of its medicines. By doing so, AstraZeneca allegedly helped manage key aspects of patient care that a physician would otherwise have to handle or pay staff to perform.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the company prompted pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers, and others to submit claims to Texas Medicaid for its medicines. Those claims caused the state health care program to disburse millions of dollars in reimbursements that were not authorized under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed\u2019s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20662],"tags":[11153,1475,33280,2029,20102],"class_list":["post-72968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-astrazeneca","tag-astrazeneca","tag-legal","tag-medicaid","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-stat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116835605781318373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}