In Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co. Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Co. Inc., Beckton Dickinson & Co. Inc. has reached a $45 million settlement with direct purchasers in five antitrust suits accusing the medical device maker of monopolizing the market for hypodermic products by providing incentives and paying kickbacks to GPOs in return for selling BD products under exclusive contracts with pharmacies and hospitals. The settlement has not yet been approved by the court and does not include claims filed by indirect purchasers, who alleged in their suit that 1) they purchased the products from distributors who did not independently set prices for those products; 2) the wholesalers were forced to sell BD products to pharmacies and hospitals based on contracts negotiated by GPOs, which were involved in a conspiratorial relationship with BD excluding competitors from selling to specific pharmacies and hospitals; and 3) BD bid for contracts by offering to bundle its products, often including substantial financial incentives to hospitals and other customers that agreed to purchase the vast majority of the products they needed from those bundles.