Oregon is taking the lead among a few states that plan to file suit against Lilly for its marketing of the antipsychotic. The effort is, for the time being, separate from the individual lawsuits already filed by eight other states against the drugmaker for hiding or downplaying side effect risks and improperly promoting the med to docs.

A spokeswoman for Oregon’s attorney general, Hardy Myers, confirms a report by the Furious Seasons blog that an executive committee representing an unspecified number of states was formed to pursue multi-state litigation against Lilly. Oregon opened its investigation in January, adds spokeswoman Jan Margosian.

So far, the states that have filed individual suits are Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia, although these and other states are free to join multi-state litigation, which collectively has more leverage over a company than any one state is likely to have.

Besides concerns that state programs paid for inappropriate or medically unnecessary Zyprexa prescriptions, interest among state investigators is also being sparked by data showing Zyprexa and other antipsychotics are being prescribed in large numbers to children, even though these drugs were, for the most part, never approved for youngsters.