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Missouri will get almost $1 million in drug company settlement

(via Flickr/CarbonNYC)

The state of Missouri will receive nearly $1 million from a nationwide settlement over poorly manufactured drugs.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster says the state will return the money to a fund that funds consumer protections lawsuits.

Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia joined the suit, which alleges that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and a Puerto Rican company, SB Pharmco, failed to properly manufacture several drugs at a plant in Puerto Rico. The drugs included one that helped cancer patients battle chemotherapy-related nausea, an antibiotic ointment, a form of the antidepressant drug Paxil, and a drug for Type II diabetes.

GSK and SB Pharmco will pay the states and D.C.  a total of $40.75 million. The factory closed in 2008, and the drug batches covered by this suit have been recalled for years.

In a statement, GSK  said it did not admit to wrongdoing in this latest settlement. The same two companies in 2010 agreed to pay $750 million in fines over the same facility.

Rachel is the justice correspondent at St. Louis Public Radio.