Prescription drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis U.S. will pay $828,500 to Idaho in a legal settlement after Attorney General Lawrence Wasden alleged the company reported excessive prices to Idaho Medicaid for prescription drugs.

The settlement involved claims relating to the average wholesale prices reported by Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

“When a manufacturer reports an inflated or false average wholesale price for a drug, taxpayers pay too much for that drug through Medicaid reimbursements,” Wasden said. “For example, one unit of Aventis’ pharmaceutical product, Allegra, had a published average wholesale price of $2.44 in 2003." Wasden's said the actual average wholesale price was $1.937 in that year — a 26 percent difference between the published price and the actual price.

The settlement will reimburse taxpayers for the excessive prices Idaho Medicaid paid for the drugs, Wasden said.

About $200,000 of the settlement will go to the state’s general fund. An additional $495,000 will go toward reimbursing the federal Medicaid share, and $50,000 will reimburse the attorney general's office for investigative and legal costs.

The company did not acknowledge liability.

Wasden’s office has recovered more than $23 million in similar settlements with 32 drug manufacturers. Two lawsuits against four other companies are pending.