In a settlement approved this week in US District Court in Minneapolis, the drugmaker agreed to reimburse health plans that paid for children and adolescents to receive the controversial antidepressant.

The deal closes out long-running, class-action litigation against Glaxo, which was sued for allegedly withholding negative info about Paxil’s safety and efficacy for teenagers and children. In 2007, Glaxo agreed to pay $63.9 million to consumers in another class-action settlement. In both cases Glaxo did not admit wrongdoing. Here is the ruling.

The settlement this week resolves the case on behalf of some 42,000 health plans across the country that paid for the drug. A third of the settlement will be paid to the law firms, according to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Under the settlement, Glaxo will pay insurers who paid for a Paxil prescription for use by a minor between January 1998 and December 2004. They may claim a refund of 40 percent of their actual cost of the drug prescribed to children and adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or 15 percent of the cost if the diagnosis was unknown.

Any unclaimed balances will be donated to nonprofits involved in mental health.

A Glaxo spokeswoman writes us to say that Glaxo “has agreed to this settlement, despite its litigation defenses, in order to avoid the costs, burdens and uncertainties of ongoing litigation. Glaxo denies any liability.”