A state court jury awarded Alabama $215 million after finding the drugmaker overcharged the state Medicaid system. The award includes $40 million in compensatory damages and $175 million in punitive damages, the Associated Press reports.

AstraZeneca is one of more than 70 drugmakers that Alabama Attorney General Troy King sued in 2005 over prices for Medicaid recipients. This suit, however, was the first to go to trial, although Alabama did settle with two other drugmakers - Dey and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which collectively agreed to pay $6.75 million.

Jere Beasley, a former lieutenant governor whose law firm helped engineer the Vioxx settlement and represented Alabama, told the jury that AstraZeneca never provided the Medicaid agency with an “honest and accurate” price for its drugs.

In a statement e-mailed to us, AstraZeneca says “the case was based on the misleading premise that the Alabama State Medicaid Agency did not understand the basics on how drug prices are established and reported. We believe numerous errors occurred during the proceedings and that the verdict should not be upheld…

“For example, the court ruled that important information on the workings of the Alabama pharmacy system be withheld throughout the trial. The Court also permitted evidence of earlier, unrelated settlements and proceedings in clear violation of the rules of evidence. These and other reversible errors were compounded by negative public comments by the trial lawyers and state leaders prior to the jury selection process. AstraZeneca has fully complied with the law, government guidelines and contracts that govern Medicaid pricing.”

Tom Christian, a Birmingham lawyer representing the drugmaker, told the AP that the prices charged the state were barely enough for the pharmacists to stay in business. He said at the start of the trial that a big judgment against AstraZeneca that forces lower prices would make it financially impossible for pharmacists to fill prescriptions for Medicaid patients.