Posts Tagged 'birth defects'

Antidepressant makers commit ethical breaches

An entry on the blog The Poptort.com mentions a civil complaint by the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston against drug maker Forest Laboratories, alleging the company defrauded the government out of millions of dollars by illegally marketing Celexa and Lexapro, two versions of the anti-depressant, “citalopram,” for unapproved uses in children and adolescents.

Doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for uses not approved by the FDA, but it’s illegal for companies ...

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GSK settlement has lessons for consumers

According to a Consumer Reports blog entry, the recent historic $3 billion settlement against pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline carries some important lessons for consumers.

Prescribing a drug “off-label,” or for a purpose different from the use specified in its U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, is legal. But promoting a drug for off-label use is not.

And apparently GSK did exactly that, through tactics that included misrepresenting research data to show benefits and ...

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GlaxoSmithKline bribed doctors with extravagant gifts

A story in Mother Jones magazine details some of the tactics that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline used to illegally market some of its medications.

Those tactics included a company-sponsored yacht trip, and payments made to celebrity physician Dr. Drew Pinsky in exchange for marketing off-label uses of anti-depressant Wellbutrin. GlaxoSmithKline also sponsored events at resorts in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and California, at which physicians were offered recreational activities including deep-sea fishing, kayaking, ...

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Link found between jobs, birth defects

A study recently published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine found a correlation between exposure to organic solvents at work and several types of birth defects affecting the heart.

In an article on the findings, U.S. News and World Report quotes researcher Suzanne Gilboa, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying that exposure to these solvents could increase the risk of having a baby ...

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Historic settlement has no impact on GSK stock

Forbes reports that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s stock prices haven’t dropped at all in the wake of a historic $3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over illegally marketing drugs.

“Paying the Department of Justice settlements are apparently just a cost of the drug business,” Forbes states.

According to Forbes, GlaxoSmithKline sold medication to treat depression in kids under 18, despite a lack of pediatric approval. It also promoted depression drug Wellbutrin ...

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Journal article calls for new definition of ‘antidepressant’

In a recent article in the scientific journal Scientifica, two mental health professionals call for a redefinition of the term “antidepressant.”

David Antonuccio, psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Nevada School of Medicine, and David Healy, psychiatrist at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Bangor University in the UK, argue that the term “antidepressant” simply doesn’t apply to medications that cause symptoms including sexual dysfunction and suicidal ...

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