AUGUSTA, Maine — The state of Maine will receive more than $1.2 million from a settlement with a pharmaceutical company accused of unlawfully misrepresenting the health effects and safety profile of the diabetes drug Avandia.
Attorney General William Schneider said Friday that Maine has joined 37 other states in a $90 million settlement with GlaxoSmithKline LLC.
“Patients rely on safety claims made by pharmaceutical companies,” Schneider said. “This settlement will help ensure that patients are not put at risk by misleading marketing.”
A complaint and consent decree were filed in Kennebec County Superior Court on Thursday alleging that GlaxoSmithKline promoted the drug to health care providers with false and misleading claims about its safety and cardiovascular benefits.
“The drug may actually have increased patient risks,” said a newsrelease from the Office of the Attorney General.
Under the terms of the consent judgement, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to change how it promotes the drug and is barred from making false or deceptive claims, making safety claims that aren’t supported by evidence, presenting once-favorable information that has since been disproven, promoting investigational drugs or misusing statistics.
The attorneys general of Oregon and Illinois led the investigation.
Why does the state of Maine get a payoff for this? Just another tax that we will pay for the next time we go to the drugstore.
Will Maine give or use any of this money to aid any Mainer harmed by that company’s misrepresentation?
Or just use it for one of Foghorn Leghorn’s pet projects?
What about all of us patients who were prescribed Avandia? Where’s our cut? Sure, we get to live with the side effects for the rest of our lives while our governor pockets the settlement and at the same time works to deny others health coverage.
cool, thats almost a whole DOLLAR for each of us, Im glad that the company had to take a hit like that, somehow I think that the price of each pill will be going up more than that now.
Please finish the article.. Where’s the rest of the story? What happens to the settlement money? How do patients who were prescribed Avandia in the state of Maine benefit from this settlement? What happens to patients who were prescribed Avandia and have had no problems to date but may show the problems later? What does the settlement entail besides the terms listed in the article, Will there be a monitoring program set up by the state or the drug maker or do patients have to sue separately for that? Is there a class action suit for patients that is separate from the case noted above?
Precisely…. state of Maine will receive more than $1.2 million. What, exactly, will the diabetics who were prescribed this medication receive?