FOREST LABS DOES NOT OFFER SPECIAL MAIL ORDER DISCOUNTS

Executive Summary

FOREST LABS DOES NOT OFFER SPECIAL MAIL ORDER DISCOUNTS, the company's Exec VP-Marketing Phillip Satow maintained in an Aug. 27 letter to "The Pink Sheet." Commenting on a recent McKesson invoice indicating a 94% discount off AWP on the prices for two products ordered by one mail order client, Sadow asserted "that Forest Laboratories as a matter of policy does not contract with mail-order companies at discount prices." The McKesson invoice -- for an undisclosed customer with retail and mail order businesses -- was appended to testimony presented to Rep. Waxman's (D-Calif.) House Energy & Commerce/Health subcommittee by NARD in late July ("The Pink Sheet" Aug. 24, T&G-5). Forest says it did not pay the chargeback request from McKesson for the mail order discounts listed on the invoice. "It appears in this case," Satow explained, "that McKesson apparently made an error in discounting Forest products to a mail- order house and that Forest did not honor the discounted sale for precisely the reason that the customer was not entitled to a discount."