McKenna, Attorneys General Nationwide Announce $9 Million in Grants from Neurontin Settlement

SEATTLE – The University of Washington was awarded nearly $400,000 to educate health care providers about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on how drugs are prescribed, Attorney General Rob McKenna announced today.

The UW is one of 24 grantees nationwide recently selected to receive a total of $9 million funded by a settlement between attorneys general and the makers of the epilepsy drug Neurontin.

Vancouver -  Eleven American and Canadian attorneys general agreed this weekend on an international strategy to crack down on the growing problem of telemarketing fraud.

Attorneys general from British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state met for a two-day conference on shared law enforcement and justice policy issues. The meeting was co-hosted by Washington state Attorney General Christine Gregoire and B.C. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh

SEATTLE -- The Attorney General’s Office is recruiting consumer analyst volunteers to work with the general public and businesses to resolve consumer complaints.

Volunteers have proven an invaluable resource to the Attorney General’s office; they take complaints and respond to consumer questions daily.

Duties include answering consumer phone inquiries, evaluating and mediating complaints and assisting staff investigators and attorneys. As a result, volunteers will gain a working knowledge of consumer law and learn how to protect themselves in the marketplace.

OLYMPIA - Cancer patients who purchased the chemotherapy drug Taxol or paclitaxel in the past four years may be eligible to receive reimbursements for illegal overcharges, according to Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

SEATTLE – Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna today announced the filing of Washington’s second lawsuit under the state’s computer spyware act. The state’s suit accuses four California-based corporations of installing software that takes control of a consumer’s computer by launching aggressive and persistent pop-ups that demand payment for a movie download service. 

SEATTLE -- The Attorney General's Office today notified the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) that it opposes Verizon Northwest's request for a $29.7 million emergency increase to local telephone rates.

The Attorney General's Public Counsel section joined AARP and WebTEC in filing joint expert witness testimony opposing the hike. WebTEC is an association of large business consumers of telecommunications, and AARP is a non-profit membership organization and consumer advocate for people 50 and older.

SEATTLE -Attorney General Christine Gregoire today accused Bristol-Myers, Squibb Co. -- manufacturer of the cancer drug Taxol -- of abusing federal patent law in order to keep a cheaper, generic competitor off the market.

Olympia - The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it will not review a Washington Supreme Court decision upholding Washington's Business and Occupation (B&0) tax on manufacturing and sales activities inside and outside of Washington.

The high court's decision to deny certiorari in two related B&O-tax cases means that the decision in those cases last April by the Washington Supreme Court will stand. The case involved hundreds of millions of dollars in potential tax refunds to the plaintiffs.

SEATTLE -- Senior citizens in the Auburn area of King County should be on the lookout for a fraudulent vacuum cleaner salesman who goes door to door offering either free cans of soup or a canned ham in exchange for a vacuum cleaner demonstration.

Olympia –  Settlement of federal criminal conspiracy charges against a national pharmaceutical company over its drug-marketing practices will lead to the return of about $790,000 to the state’s Medicaid fund, Attorney General Christine Gregoire said today.

The settlement with TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. of Chicago, Ill., will require the company to reimburse Medicaid programs in all 50 states a total of $56.7 million. In addition, the company will be required to return $524 million to the federal government, and pay a substantial criminal fine.