WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AstraZeneca is disappointed with today's ruling and we intend to appeal. We believe the ruling is unsupported as the conduct at issue was the result of highly competitive conditions in the pharmaceutical marketplace, which led to discounting. The Court's prior ruling on liability is thus profoundly anti- competitive.
AstraZeneca has competed responsibly with respect to pricing and marketing of drugs and we firmly believe that we have acted at all times in accordance with the law.
The plaintiffs are fully aware of AWP pricing and still use AWP as a reimbursement benchmark today. The result of AstraZeneca's conduct in this case was to keep a lower cost product competitive under the Government's reimbursement system, thereby saving Medicare and patients millions of dollars.
