Florida Part of GlaxoSmithKline's $90 Million Avandia Settlement

Florida will again share in a nationwide settlement with drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, this time over allegations the pharmaceutical company unlawfully promoted a diabetes drug, by misrepresenting its cardiovascular risks and safety profile, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondis office joined 37 other states in the $90 million settlement over the marketing of Avandia.

Floridas share was not immediately available.

Misleading patients about a medication's safety profile and cardiovascular risks is dangerous, Bondi stated in a release. GlaxoSmithKline is now required to safely and properly promote its diabetes drug, Avandia.

As part of the settlement, GSK must not: make any false, misleading or deceptive claims about any diabetes drug; make comparative safety claims not supported by substantial evidence or substantial clinical experience; present favorable information previously thought of as valid but rendered invalid by contrary and more credible recent information; promote investigational drugs; or misuse statistics or otherwise misrepresent the nature, applicability, or significance of clinical trials.

The settlement comes on the heels of a settlement in July that awarded Florida $56 million as part of a record-setting $3 billion federal-state settlement to resolve criminal and civil charges that included marketing antidepressants for approved uses.

The U.K.-based Glaxo, in pleading guilty to the largest health-care fraud settlement in U.S. history, admitted to criminal charges involving the antidepressants Paxil between 1998 and 2003 and Wellbutrin, and for withholding safety date from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the diabetes drug Avandia.