Regeneron to defend against DOJ complaint on drug-price manipulation

(Reuters) -Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Monday it seeks to defend against U.S. Department of Justice's complaint that alleged the company misreported the average sales price of its macular degeneration drug Eylea.

"Reimbursing credit card service fees to distributors is not a price concession and does not affect EYLEA's price," Regeneron said in a statement, adding that it considered the complaint to be "meritless".

The DOJ last week, in a complaint filed in federal court in Boston, alleged the drugmaker failed for years to report how it paid hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize Eylea purchases by reimbursing drug distributors for credit-card processing fees.

The drug, which the Tarrytown, New York-based company began marketing in 2011, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating conditions including wet age-related macular degeneration, which impairs vision.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Rashmi Aich)