Arkansas will receive a $1.5 million share of a $90 million settlement to 38 states from GlaxoSmith-Kline over allegations the British drugmaker misrepresented the safety risks of the diabetes drug Avandia.

Th e money will go to the attorney general’s consumer-protection fund, Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, said Friday.

GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty in July to misdemeanor federal criminal charges and paid $3 billion in federal fines for how it promoted some of its antidepressants and failingto report safety data about Avandia.

McDaniel was one of 38 attorneys general who banded together to accuse the company of misleading consumers about whether Avandia caused heart attacks and strokes.

According to McDaniel’s complaint, GlaxoSmithKline misrepresented Avandia’s effects on cholesterol and claimed the drug was hearthealthy when the company actually knew the drug could increase cardiovascular risks. Those are violations of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, state lawyers claimed.

The settlement also will require the company to change the way it discloses and uses safety data about its medications.

“The company chose to settle the matter to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation and trial,” a GlaxoSmithKline news release said. “The company did not admit to any wrongdoing or liability of any kind under these states’ consumer protection laws in this settlement.”

The company scaled back Avandia marketing in 2010 after regulators in Europe moved to ban it over its cardiovascular risks. U.S. regulators limited sales because of the link to heart attacks. Avandia had once been the world’s best-selling diabetes pill.

In June 2011, McDaniel, claiming GlaxoSmithKline had violated the deceptivetrade practices act, secured a $707,358 share of a $40.8 million settlement paid to 38 states by GlaxoSmithKline over allegations the drugs the company had sold in Arkansas were diluted due to being manufactured under substandard conditions at a Puerto Rican plant.

The medications were the anti-nausea drug Kytril, antibiotic ointment Bactoban, antidepressant Paxil CR and the diabetes drug Avandamet. They were sold between 2001 and 2004. The company paid federal authorities $750 million to settle criminal charges and civil claims in October 2010. That money also was placed in the Arkansas consumerprotection fund.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/17/2012