(Reuters) – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Monday it is defending itself against a U.S. Justice Department complaint alleging the company misreported the average selling price of its macular degeneration drug Eylea.
“Reimbursing credit card processing fees to distributors is not a price concession and does not affect the price of EYLEA,” Regeneron (NASDAQ:) said in a statement, adding that the company believes the complaint is “meritless.”
The Justice Department last week, in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston, said the drugmaker for years failed to account for how it paid hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize Eylea purchases by reimbursing drug distributors for credit card processing fees.
The drug, which the Tarrytown, New York-based company began selling in 2011, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat diseases including wet age-related macular degeneration, which impairs vision.