They’re lining up. First, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, then the Senate Finance Committee and then the New York Attorney General begin investigations into the handling of the controversial Vytorin trial. Now Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, has joined the parade of lawmakers probing how Merck and Schering-Plough handled the study data and the marketing of the expensive cholesterol med.

“We are investigating whether state funds were spent on false assurances about the safety and effectiveness of these drugs,” Blumenthal tells The Wall Street Journal. He’s referring to Vytorin and Zetia, which Merck and Schering co-market in a joint venture. The state’s Medicaid program was the main public source of money spent on the drugs, although he didn’t offer a specific amount.

The Vytorin study has attracted enormous attention because the drugmakers delayed results for nearly two years; briefly changed the primary endpoint without consulting their lead investigator; named an independent panel to review data without releasing names and three panel members were later learned to have financial ties; and some Schering-Plough execs sold lots of stock during all this time.

The FDA, meanwhile, is also reviewing the data, which showed Vytorin lowered LDL cholesterol better than the much cheaper Zocor - which like Zetia is part of the Vytorin combo therapy - but didn’t reduce plaque in the carotid artery.