The Cook County Pension Fund recently received $1 million in settlement benefits from a class action lawsuit regarding prescription drug costs.

The suit, which was filed on behalf of a large class of governmental entities, claimed that drug wholesaler McKesson Corporation and pharmaceutical data provider First DataBank conspired to wrongfully inflate the “Average Wholesale Price” (AWP) of more than 400 prescription drugs from 2001 to 2006.  The AWP is a mark-up factor that determines how much providers of prescription drug benefits reimburse pharmacies for dispensing brand name drugs.

The Cook County Pension Fund participated in an $82 million total settlement fund arising from the alleged over-payments.