[SSRI-Research] Bad Medicine-Editorial-Guardian UK

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JustSayNo

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 20:22:43 -0000

[sSRI-Research] Bad Medicine-Editorial-Guardian UK

 

Bad Medicine_Editorial_Guardian UK

 

New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, is being recognized

as a hero on both sides of the Atlantic. That's because, unlike FDA

officials, he knows how to use a " smoking gun " to affect change in

corporate practices to protect the public health!

 

An editorial in the Guardian (UK) notes that the significance of

Sptizer's lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, goes far beyond the modest

fine it seeks. This suit charges the company--and by extension the

pharmaceutical industry--with fraudulent marketing. Spitzer's suit is

a quantum leap toward redirecting the marketing practices for

prescription drugs.

 

" ..in choosing to charge the company with fraud, the New York suit

may change the way pharmaceutical companies market and sell their

drugs. "

 

Spitzer's probe may help restore the integrity of medicine by

exposing the physicians who collaborated in industry's fraudulent

practices. The integrity of medicine hinges on disengagement from

the corrupting influence of pharmaceutical $$ incentives.

 

See: " Smoking gun " internal 1998 Glaxo memo:

http://www..ahrp.org/risks/SSRI0204/GSKpaxil/pg1.html

 

 

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

Tel: 212-595-8974

e-mail: veracare

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1237013,00.html

 

Bad medicine

 

Saturday June 12, 2004

The Guardian

 

The decision by New York's attorney general to sue GlaxoSmithKline

for " persistent and repeated fraud " represents a more dramatic

challenge to the major pharmaceutical makers than first realised.

Distracted by the modesty of the lawsuit's demands - a fine

equivalent to the profits Glaxo made from sales of its antidepressant

Paxil (called Seroxat in the UK) to children - there is temptation to

dismiss the case as small beer. Glaxo's sales of Paxil to under-18s

are estimated to be around £140m, a piffling fine for a company worth

£67bn.

If that were all Glaxo had to worry about, then this would be an

embarrassing episode. But in choosing to charge the company with

fraud, the New York suit may change the way pharmaceutical companies

market and sell their drugs. At the heart of the suit are allegations

that Glaxo deliberately downplayed several studies that showed Paxil

to be ineffective and liable to provoke suicidal impulses. Eliot

Spitzer has a smoking gun in the form of memos from Glaxo, including

one which says the company wanted to " manage the dissemination of

these data in order to minimise any potential negative commercial

impact " .

 

Glaxo rejects the suit, and says it had not covered up anything. Yet

Mr Spitzer argues the company is guilty of fraud if it fails to

inform doctors of the full spectrum of results for a drug. There are

some recent cases that should encourage the New York suit: Pfizer,

the world's largest drug manufacturer, recently paid a £240m fine for

promoting a product with no benefits. Glaxo itself is under

investigation in Italy for an estimated £150m worth of gifts to

doctors there.

 

Mr Spitzer has an impressive record in calling Wall Street's banks to

account for their misdeeds, and changing their less wholesome

practices. His attempt to clean up " big pharma " is just as worthy of

support, all the more because the UK sorely lacks an equivalent to Mr

Spitzer and his wide-ranging powers. The drug industry must not be

allowed to act like West End theatre advertisers, cherry-picking the

reviews that suit them. The stakes are far too high.

 

 

 

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