AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ Maine is getting $445,000 as part of a settlement with Pfizer Inc. over the marketing of an organ-transplant drug.
Attorney General Janet Mills said Friday that Maine was among 41 states involved in the $35 million settlement with Pfizer, the parent company of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. The deal resolves allegations Wyeth misrepresented the uses of the drug Rapamune.
Authorities said that that Wyeth trained sales representatives to encourage doctors to prescribe Rapamune for uses other than preventing rejection of transplanted kidneys.
Rapamune was approved in 1999 for use in kidney transplant patients. It's illegal to promote drugs for uses that haven't been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
Mills says that the effort will help deter the future misuse of pharmaceuticals in Maine.