Zyprexa

An AstraZeneca spokesperson questioned the study’s methodology.

A GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson wouldn’t discuss projected earnings for Lamictal, a treatment for bipolar disorder.

A spokesperson for Lilly said the company expected only a "modest short-term benefit to sales" for Tony Butler, managing director and pharmaceutical analyst at Lehman Bros., an investment bank in New York, agreed with the report that Medicare would probably have higher drug prices than Medicaid.

Butler estimated the sales windfall for drug companies under Medicare to be between $1.8 billion and $2 billion.

He said profits would likely increase in coming years as more businesses cut retirees’ drug benefits and steer their former employees into the Medicare drug plans.

Rep.

Henry Waxman, DCalif., and other Democrats have long complained that Republicans withheld vital cost information about the program, allowed drug-industry lobbyists to draft the proposal and fought efforts to have the government use its leverage to negotiate lower drug prices.

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