Big drugmakers are ponying up over the AWP, or average wholesale price scandal, according to a statement by attorneys who filed the case. For those unfamiliar, the stated AWP is used to set the price paid by consumers making Medicare Part B co-payments, as well as Medicare, insurers and other third-party payors that shell out for a drug. The lawsuit charged that consumers and third-party payors paid more than they should have because the drugmakers used false AWP reporting.

The issue has embroiled the entire industry. The latest settlement involves Abbott Labs, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Baxter Healthcare, Bayer, Dey, Fujisawa, Pfizer’s Pharmacia unit, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Gensia Sicor Pharmaceuticals and ZLB Behring. And the drugs covered in the settlement include Aranesp, Epogen, Neupogen, Neulasta, Anzemet, Ferrlecit and Infed.

Previous settlements in the AWP litigation in federal court in Boston involved AstraZeneca, which made a $24 million to Medicare Part B patients using the Zoladex med, and Glaxo, which in 2006 paid $70 million over its Kytril and Zofran drugs. And after a trial, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb last November to pay nearly $14 million to insurers and consumers in Massachusetts for unfair trade practices.