SEATTLE - The prices of more than a thousand brand name drugs are about to get a little cheaper, thanks to a huge settlement with a major drug distributor.

The settlement is for more than $350 million and ends a long court battle over a an alleged drug industry scheme to boost pharmacy profits at your expense.

Court records show the scheme started back in 2001 with a secret agreement between major drug wholesaler McKesson and First DataBank, which publishes prescription drug prices.

The objective, according to the judge's ruling, was to raise the standard markup between the actual wholesale cost that pharmacies pay for drugs, known as the wholesale average cost (WAC), and the average wholesale price (AWP) that health plans use to reimburse the pharmacies.

By 2004, records show 99 percent of drug manufacturers were in on the scheme. Retail pharmacies raked in higher profits.

"And the types of drugs covered by the settlement are all the block busters that we're familiar with," said lead plaintiff attorney Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

Lipitor, Claritin, Prilosec, Celebrex, Ambien -- if you can name it, Berman says chances are, it's on the list.

The court agreed with plaintiffs that the scheme caused health plans to pay higher reimbursement prices and consumers had to pay higher co-pay and high prices for prescription medicine.

Under the settlement, consumers and third-party health plans will get money back, and the prices of more than 1,400 prescriptions drugs will be reduced by 4 percent.

You're eligible to file a claim if:

You paid percentage co-pays for any of the settlement drugs between August 2, 2001 and March 15, 2005.

You were uninsured or under-insured,and paid the cash price for any of the settlement drugs between August 1, 2001 and January 23, 2009.

You're a third-party payer who paid or reimbursed for all or part of the cost of any settlement drugs from August 2001 to March 15, 2005. The proposed final settlement is set to be approved by July 23, 2009.

For more information, call (877) 625-9414 or click here.

To read the details of the federal court ruling, click here.