Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the state will join a multi-state lawsuit over a drug maker’s effort to illegally extend its patent on a popular prescription drug. The states are suing Bristol Myers Squibb over the anti-anxiety drug BuSpar, charging the company illegally extended its patent to shield itself from competition by generic forms of the same drug. Miller calls it an important, often-used anxiety drug, especially for the elderly in Iowa and across the country. Nationwide sales in 2000 totaled 700-million dollars. Miller says it’s not uncommon for the big pharmaceutical companies to try and extend their valuable patents. The price drops when a generic goes on the market.He says it could be 70-percent of the original price but when more makers start offering versions the cost can go down to 30-percent of the original, so the time the patent expires is important. Medical websites explain the drug, buspirone hydrochloride, reduces nervousness and anxiety without narcotics.