Attorney General Dustin McDaniel claims the drugmaker urged docs to prescribe the antipsychotic to children and the elderly for uses beyond FDA-approved indications and, in the process, harming patients and costing the state millions of dollars, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette* reports. The suit claims AZ misled docs and consumers to increase sales, despite risks of injury, disease and sickness.

Arkansas also filed suit against Lilly, which sells Zyprexa, and Johnson & Johnson, which sells Risperdal, because all three are paid for by the state’s Medicaid and employee health-insurance programs. McDaniel filed suit against J&J’s Janssen unit in November 2006 and against Lilly earlier this month. Here is the AZ suit.

“We want to send a message that these pharmaceutical companies need to walk a straightline when they’re dealing with Arkansas and other states because the health and safety of consumers across this country depend on that,” Justin Allen, chief deputy attorney general, tells the paper. He adds that Arkansas spent about $200 million on all three drugs since they became available.

Arkansas is one of several states suing the drugmakers in hopes of recouping Medicaid payments and for treatment of patients who suffered ill effects after taking them. Two months ago, Lilly settled its case with Alaska in the midst of a jury trial in March for $15 million. AZ spokesman Jim Minnick declined to comment to the paper because AZ hadn’t seen the suit, but added that Seroquel saved many lives.

Aside from its approved uses, the lawsuit claims AZ also marketed Seroquel for sleeplessness, ADHD, depression, anxiety, mood disorder, and aggression associated with late-onset dementia. At the same time, the suit claims AZ failed to properly warn consumers the pill could cause diabetes, stroke, pancreatitis, seizures and other illnesses, according to the lawsuit. The FDA reprimanded AstraZeneca in May 1999 and October 2006 for giving misleading info about the drug, the paper notes.

The state charges AZ with eight counts including Medicaid fraud, which entitles the state to triple damages, and violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, for which the state could receive up to $10,000 for each of “many, many violations,” according to Allen. “Several hundred hundred million, we believe, the state could ultimately prove up in damages in trial,” he tells the paper.

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