The Mississippi Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit against Bayer, ruling the state can refile a claim the drugmaker defrauded its Medicaid program, Legal Newsline writes. Bayer Corp. USA was accused of inflating the average wholesale price of meds, causing the state to overpay and the false price reports led the state Medicaid program to spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars unnecessarily.

In 2005, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed a suit against more than 86 drugmakers, including three Bayer units, accusing them of defrauding the state by inflating average wholesale prices. Bayer argued that under a 2001 settlement with Mississippi over drug pricing, the state had no grounds to sue.

The 2001 settlement, in which Bayer agreed to pay the state $48,608, included a provision that the drugmaker provide the state “with true pricing information that accurately reflects the prices at which actual purchasers buy the drug and biological products sold by Bayer.” The trial court found Bayer and its units followed the settlement and the state lacked grounds to file another suit and dismissed the case. The Supreme Court overturned the decision in a majority opinion (see here).