Prescription drug maker Forest Laboratories Inc. will pay $790,000 to Idaho to settle Idaho's claims that the company overcharged the state's Medicaid program.

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said the company inflated or falsified the price that Idaho's Medicaid administrators use in reimbursing pharmacies for drugs. Wasden said Forest Laboratories reported an average price of 48 cents per unit of the antidepressant drug Celexa in 2003, while the actual average price was 37 cents.

"The publishing of false drug prices harms taxpayers and the state," Wasden said.

He said his office "uncovered ... that in a very large number of instances, drug manufacturers reported false and inflated prices for their drugs."

The settlement is meant to reimburse taxpayers for overpayments on prescription drugs covered by Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income and disabled people. About $461,000 will reimburse Medicaid, $185,000 will go into the state's general fund to be appropriated by the Idaho Legislature, and $50,000 will reimburse Wasden's office for investigative and legal costs.

Wasden has settled similar cases with 29 other companies for more than $21 million in payments to Idaho.