The Word Missing is Misleading - Jerrold S. Parker, BMJ

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[sSRI-Research] The Word " Missing " is Misleading - Jerrold S.

Parker,

 

 

 

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/330/7481/7

 

The Word " Missing " is Misleading 1 January 2005

 

Jerrold S. Parker,

Attorney

111 Great Neck Road, Great Neck, New York USA 11021

Send response to journal:

Re: The Word " Missing " is Misleading

 

 

 

I would like to thank the British Medical Journal and Jeanne

Lenzer for the important article " FDA to review 'missing " drug company

documents " which will hopefully finally open the door to all of the

data and information that was ever in the possession or knowledge of

Ely Lilly & Co. regarding suicidality and violent behavior caused or

activated by fluoxetine (Prozac®).

 

As one of the trial lawyers who started the worlds 1st lawsuit

against Eli Lilly & Co. claiming that fluoxetine caused suicidal

ideations resulting many times in completed or attempted suicide, self

mutilation and violent behavior, recent events are starting to

vindicate the important work of the trial lawyers dating back to 1990

and that of Harvard professor and researcher Dr. Martin Teicher, who

in 1990, published a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry

suggesting such a connection.

 

As one of the of the trial lawyers who filed the Wesbecker

lawsuit referred to by Jeanne Lenzer in her article and who at the

time was very involved in the Prozac litigation and as a member of the

Plaintiff's Steering Committee for the Multi District Litigation in

Federal Court concerning Prozac, I can say that the use of the word

" missing " in the article is very misleading and unfortunate.

 

The word " missing " has given rise to the belief by the world's

media that the reports and memos belonging to Lilly and which were

anonymously supplied to Jeanne Lenzer and the British Medical Journal

linking Prozac® to suicidal behavior, activation of negative thoughts

and violence were " lost " or " misplaced " . The fact is that Lilly never

turned over those reports and memos to the plaintiff's in that

litigation. And apparently and with consistency, Lilly never turned

them over to the FDA. As reported in the article by Jeanne Lenzer, Dr.

Richard Kapit, the FDA reviewer who in 1987, originally approved

fluoxetine said that he had never been given the Lilly data. " If we

have good evidence that we were misled and that data was withheld,

then I would change my mind [about the safety of fluoxetine], " he said

in a statement. " These data are very important. If this report was

done by Lilly or for Lilly, it was their responsibility to report it

to us and to publish it. . I do agree now that these stimulatory side

effects, especially in regard to suicidal ideation and homicidal

ideation, are worse than I thought at the time that I reviewed the drug. "

 

Of course Lilly is quick to take advantage of the

misperception and jump on the poor use of words, releasing a statement

to the New York Times " To our knowledge, there has never been any

allegation of missing documents " from lawsuits involving Lilly. Lilly

was correct. The trial lawyers never said that documents were

" missing " - these documents were not missing - they were never

disclosed to us or the FDA!

 

Unfortunately, this type of conduct is nothing new to the

pharmaceutical industry. Just look at the recent events of many of the

pharmaceuticals we have been reading about. But this type of conduct -

hiding negative data from the public and regulators - has been

standard operating procedure for pharmaceutical companies worldwide

for many decades and continues to date and is only one of the many

ways the pharmaceutical companies use to mislead and misinform the

regulators, physicians, patients and lawyers as to what the studies

truly demonstrated. It is only because of the diligence of the trial

lawyers, medical researchers and the brave individuals within the

regulatory bodies that the unlawful conduct of the pharmaceutical

companies is being brought to light and very ironically, saving lives

as a result.

 

Competing interests: I am one of the attorneys who prepared

and filed the original complaint in the Joseph Wesbecker case and for

a period of time was involved in the litigation of that case as well

as hundreds of other cases with claims that Prozac caused suicidality

and violent behavior.