Purdue Pharma, the maker of the painkiller OxyContin, will pay a group of states $19.5 million to settle a complaint about the marketing of the drug, the Associated Press reported May 9.

Twenty six states and the District of Columbia will share in the payment. The complaint from state attorneys general centered on Purdue's practice of encouraging doctors to prescribe OxyContin to be taken every eight hours, rather than every 12 hours as approved by the FDA.

"We're raising the bar on off-label marketing and other promotion tactics that lead to abuse and diversion of prescription drugs," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. "Our combined state legal campaign will stop this manufacturer from promoting a powerful drug for inappropriate uses."

Blumenthal said the payout also settled complaints that Purdue failed to adequately warn the public about the abuse potential of OxyContin.