Walgreen to pay Mass. $5m to settle drug-pricing suit

Walgreen Co. will pay Massachusetts' Medicaid program more than $5 million as part of a multistate settlement over alleged improprieties in billing. The drugstore chain agreed to pay more than $35 million to the federal government, 42 states, and Puerto Rico. The settlement stems from a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging the company boosted the price Medicaid paid for prescription drugs by switching from capsules to tablets, or vice versa, depending on which cost more. Attorney General Martha Coakley said Massachusetts was one of the states to investigate with the federal government. Walgreen denied any wrongdoing. (AP)

Turbine Inc., a Westwood online gaming company whose products include The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, said it has raised $40 million in equity financing. Turbine said the investment was led by Time Warner Inc., the media and entertainment giant, and GGV Capital, a venture capital firm that, according to its website, has offices in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Singapore. (Chris Reidy)

State Street Corp. said it will sell 35.7 million shares at $70 apiece, a 2 percent discount to Tuesday's closing price of $71.36. The financial services company expects to take in $2.5 billion from the offering. Assuming underwriters exercise their 5.4 million-share allowance for overallotments, State Street could net up to $2.8 billion. (AP)

Faced with energy and metals prices that have risen faster this year than many executives expected, US manufacturers are succeeding in pushing through price increases, executives said. Following word Monday that United Technologies Corp.'s Carrier air conditioner unit would be raising its North American prices by about 6 percent, executives at other top diversified manufacturers, including SPX Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., said they are continuing to push through price increases. In addition to surging oil prices manufacturers are coping with higher prices for metals such as copper, steel, and aluminum. The higher prices are not limited to any one sector. Last week, Dow Chemical Co., the biggest US chemical manufacturer, said it would be raising prices 20 percent because of surging energy costs. (Reuters)

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. shares recovered on reports the nation's fourth-largest investment bank may raise capital from an outside investor and allay market fears of a liquidity crisis. Shares rose 79 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $31.40 after falling more than 15 percent Tuesday. Investors regained confidence in Lehman after Standard & Poor's maintained its rating on the firm, and Merrill Lynch gave it a "buy" rating. (AP)

Merck & Co., the third-largest US drug maker, does not have to cover medical monitoring expenses for Vioxx users who aren't claiming injury from the recalled painkiller, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled. Phyllis Sinclair and Joseph Murray sued Merck in 2004, seeking to have the company fund a medical screening program for US consumers who took Vioxx for at least six weeks. But New Jersey law requires such plaintiffs to show physical injury, the state Supreme Court said. (Bloomberg)

Monsanto Co.'s chief executive, Hugh Grant, set a bold goal for the company, promising to develop by 2030 strains of corn, soybeans, and cotton that can yield twice as much grain and fiber per acre while consuming just two-thirds of the water. Grant disclosed the initiative during a company meeting without laying out specific strategies or initiatives Monsanto would employ to reach the goal. He said afterward that Monsanto will rely on its current research and development team that is developing crops resistant to drought and pests. (AP)

Microsoft Corp. didn't violate an Alcatel-Lucent SA patent when producing its Xbox 360 videogame player, a federal jury in San Diego decided. The trial was the third of five scheduled over alleged patent infringements. Alcatel-Lucent, the world's largest supplier of telecom equipment, claimed in this case that the Xbox console and DVD player infringed on a 1993 patent for coding video frames. (Bloomberg)