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Accounts Receivable (Policy)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2011
Accounts Receivable  
Accounts Receivable

The information that the Company considers when establishing its chargeback reserves includes contract and non-contract sales trends, average historical contract pricing, actual price changes, processing time lags and customer inventory information from its three largest wholesale customers.  The Company's chargeback provision and related reserve vary with changes in product mix, changes in customer pricing and changes to estimated wholesaler inventory.

 

 Customer rebates and incentive programs are generally provided to customers as an incentive for the customers to continue carrying the Company's products or replace competing products in their distribution channels with our products.  Rebate programs are based on a customer's dollar purchases made during an applicable monthly, quarterly or annual period.  The Company also provides indirect rebates, which are rebates paid to indirect customers that have purchased the Company's products from a wholesaler under a contract with us.  The incentive programs include stocking or trade show promotions where additional discounts may be given on a new product or certain existing products as an added incentive to stock the Company's products.  We may, from time to time, also provide price and/or volume incentives on new products that have multiple competitors and/or on existing products that confront new competition in order to attempt to secure or maintain a certain market share.  The information that the Company considers when establishing its rebate and incentive program reserves are rebate agreements with, and purchases by, each customer, tracking and analysis of promotional offers, projected annual sales for customers with annual incentive programs, actual rebates and incentive payments made, processing time lags, and for indirect rebates, the level of inventory in the distribution channel that will be subject to indirect rebates.  We do not provide incentives designed to increase shipments to our customers that we believe would result in out-of-the-ordinary course of business inventory for them.  The Company regularly reviews and monitors estimated or actual customer inventory information at its three largest wholesale customers for its key products to ascertain whether customer inventories are in excess of ordinary course of business levels.

Pursuant to a drug rebate agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, TriCare and similar supplemental agreements with various states, the Company provides a rebate on drugs dispensed under such government programs.  The Company determines its estimate of the Medicaid rebate accrual primarily based on historical experience of claims submitted by the various states and any new information regarding changes in the Medicaid program that might impact the Company's provision for Medicaid rebates.  In determining the appropriate accrual amount we consider historical payment rates; processing lag for outstanding claims and payments; levels of inventory in the distribution channel; and the impact of the healthcare reform acts.  The Company reviews the accrual and assumptions on a quarterly basis against actual claims data to help ensure that the estimates made are reliable.  On January 28, 2008, the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act was enacted, which expands TriCare to include prescription drugs dispensed by TriCare retail network pharmacies.  TriCare rebate accruals reflect this program expansion and are based on actual and estimated rebates on Department of Defense eligible sales.

 

The Company accepts returns of product according to the following criteria: (i) the product returns must be approved by authorized personnel with the lot number and expiration date accompanying any request and (ii) we generally will accept returns of products from any customer and will provide the customer with a credit memo for such returns if such products are returned between six months prior to, and 12 months following, such products' expiration date. The Company records a provision for product returns based on historical experience, including actual rate of expired and damaged in-transit returns, average remaining shelf-lives of products sold, which generally range from 12 to 48 months, and estimated return dates.  Additionally, we consider other factors when estimating the current period return provision, including levels of inventory in the distribution channel, significant market changes that may impact future expected returns, and actual product returns, and may record additional provisions for specific returns that we believe are not covered by the historical rates.

 

The Company offers cash discounts to its customers, generally 2% of the sales price, as an incentive for paying within invoice terms, which generally range from 30 to 90 days.  The Company accounts for cash discounts by reducing accounts receivable by the full amount of the discounts that we expect our customers to take.

 

In addition to the significant gross-to-net sales adjustments described above, we periodically make other sales adjustments.  The Company generally accounts for these other gross-to-net adjustments by establishing an accrual in the amount equal to its estimate of the adjustments attributable to the sale.

 

The Company may at its discretion provide price adjustments due to various competitive factors, through shelf-stock adjustments on customers' existing inventory levels.  There are circumstances under which we may not provide price adjustments to certain customers as a matter of business strategy, and consequently may lose future sales volume to competitors and risk a greater level of sales returns on products that remain in the customer's existing inventory.

 

As detailed above, we have the experience and access to relevant information that we believe are necessary to reasonably estimate the amounts of such deductions from gross revenues, except as described below.  Some of the assumptions we use for certain of our estimates are based on information received from third parties, such as wholesale customer inventories and market data, or other market factors beyond our control.  The estimates that are most critical to the establishment of these reserves, and therefore, would have the largest impact if these estimates were not accurate, are estimates related to contract sales volumes, average contract pricing, customer inventories and return volumes.  The Company regularly reviews the information related to these estimates and adjusts its reserves accordingly, if and when actual experience differs from previous estimates.  With the exception of the product returns allowance, the ending balances of accounts receivable reserves and allowances generally are processed during a two-month to four-month period.

 

Use of Estimates in Reserves

We believe that our reserves, allowances and accruals for items that are deducted from gross revenues are reasonable and appropriate based on current facts and circumstances.  It is possible however, that other parties applying reasonable judgment to the same facts and circumstances could develop different allowance and accrual amounts for items that are deducted from gross revenues. Additionally, changes in actual experience or changes in other qualitative factors could cause our allowances and accruals to fluctuate, particularly with newly launched or acquired products.  We review the rates and amounts in our allowance and accrual estimates on a quarterly basis. If future estimated rates and amounts are significantly greater than those reflected in our recorded reserves, the resulting adjustments to those reserves would decrease our reported net revenues; conversely, if actual product returns, rebates and chargebacks are significantly less than those reflected in our recorded reserves, the resulting adjustments to those reserves would increase our reported net revenues.  We regularly review the information related to these estimates and adjust our reserves accordingly, if and when actual experience differs from previous estimates.