Iowa recently joined 17 other states that sued Abbott Laboratories for blocking generic competition for a popular medicine named Tricor, a fenofibrate drug used to reduce triglycerides and cholesterol.

Abbott, together with Solvay's Fournier Industrie et Sante and Laboratories Fournier, illegally blocked competition using groundless patents for the cholesterol medication.

The company created new formulations of Tricor, with only minor changes, and patented them, in order to prevent cheaper generic versions to appear on the market. A Tricor pill costs more than $3, while generics can be one-third of the cost, or even less. Abbott gained more than $1 billion last year, from sales of Tricor, BusinessWeek informs.

"As Florida and our senior population face ever increasing costs of prescription drugs, we cannot permit drug companies to edge out competition and potentially less expensive generic alternatives," Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.

Spokespersons for both Abbott and Solvay claim that the companies’ actions were perfectly legal.

Abbott’s spokeswoman, Mellisa Brotz, pointed that several other fenofibrate drugs are available on the market.

“Abbott's actions are lawful,” Brotz said in a phone interview for Bloomberg. “We've not prevented other fenofibrate products from being marketed. In fact, there are eight other fenofibrate products available.”

Neil Hirsch, the spokesman for Solvay Pharmaceuticals, also claimed that the company “has not engaged in any wrongdoing and intends to vigorously defend itself.”

The complaint issued by the 18 states claims that Abbott and Solvay conspired since 1998, aiming to monopolize the market by obtaining patents for slightly modified Tricor. The two companies have made billions of dollars in annual profits, while patients who needed the drug were burdened with excessively high prices.

The states involved in the lawsuit are: Arizona, Florida, California, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, Oregon, Maryland, Minnesota, Connecticut, Missouri, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Maine, Washington and Arkansas.