AstraZeneca is the latest pharmaceutical company to receive a subpoena from Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s office seeking documents about its contracts with Delaware hospitals.

Emily Denney, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca PLC, said Friday the company has received subpoenas that “relate to pharmaceutical hospital pricing contracts” and is cooperating. “AstraZeneca is confident that the agreements requested by the attorney general are in full compliance with the law,” Denney said. She declined to provide further details.

The subpoena comes after similar requests were made from Biden’s office to Pfizer and Glaxo. “We’re not sure what their concern is at this point, but we’re working with them and responding to the subpoenas,” Mary Anne Rhyne, a Glaxo spokeswoman, told Bloomberg News.

Drugmakers have come under scrutiny recently for the practice of nominal pricing, or selling drugs at discounts of 90 percent or more. Glaxo mentioned the practice in its SEC filing disclosing the subpoenas,

Drug companies are required to sell drugs to Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, at the lowest price they sell to other customers. An exception allows them to sell drugs to charitable organizations at steep discounts without having to offer the same price to Medicaid

Source: The Wilmington News-Journal[tags]AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer[/tags]