AG Koster announces Missouri to receive $948,385 in pharmaceutical manufacturing settlement

Missouri is getting nearly a million dollars from a settlement with GlaxoSmithKline and SB Pharmo Puerto Rico.

Attorney General Chris Koster says he and 37 other state attorneys general reached the settlement, which stems from allegations that the companies engaged in substandard manufacturing practices in Puerto Rico.

He says certain batches of drugs made there might have been compromised.

The drugs inquestion, which Koster says have been recalled for many years now, included:

Kytril (a sterile drug used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy),

Bactroban (an antibiotic ointment used to treat skin infections),

Paxil CR (the controlled release formulation of the popular antidepressant drug, Paxil),

Avandamet (a combination Type II diabetes drug).

The companies will pay the states a total of $40.75 million as part of the settlement. GSK and SB Pharmco closed their Cidra facility in 2009. As a result of the settlement, GSK and SB Pharmco are enjoined from making false, misleading or deceptive claims regarding the manufacturing of any of the type of drugs formerly manufactured at the Cidra facility.

Any consumers who have questions about their medications should contact their physician or pharmacist.