The first of over 1,000 Zoloft birth defect lawsuits has gone to trial, and a lawyer has provided evidence that Pfizer researchers concluded that women who take Zoloft while pregnant risk giving birth to children with heart defects. According to Bloomberg, the evidence is contained in a May 2014 internal report on Zoloft, in which the babies of women taking the drug were found to be ...
Pfizer Accused of Knowing Zoloft Posed Risk of Birth Defects
Posted May 10, 2015 in Product News and Recalls
Premature Births More Common for Pregnant Women on Antidepressants
Posted July 16, 2014 in Product News and Recalls
A recent study shows that women who take antidepressants during pregnancy are more likely to deliver their babies prematurely. Many of the drugs considered in the study belong to a class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs like Zoloft and Effexor.
The study was a review of 41 different papers that observed the use of antidepressants by pregnant women. The researchers said that they accounted ...
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A recent study indicates that some antidepressants classified as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, pose a small but serious heart risk.
A BBC News story says that U.S. researchers came to that conclusion after examining the medical records of 38,000 patients from New England. They found evidence linking the antidepressants citalopram and escitalopram to a heart rhythm disturbance known as “long QT interval.”
This isn’t the first time that SSRI antidepressants ...
continue reading...Court reverses ‘off label’ drug marketing conviction
Posted December 5, 2012 in Drug and Medical Device Lawsuits | Legal Issues | Product Liability | Product News and Recalls
A federal appeals court has ruled that pharmaceutical sales staff can’t be convicted for promoting drugs for “off label” uses, as long as those uses are otherwise legal.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York issued the decision in the case of Alfred Caronia, a pharmaceutical sales representative convicted in 2008 of illegally promoting the narcolepsy medication Xyrem for unapproved uses. In his appeal, Bloomberg reports, Caronia contended that the ...
continue reading...Medical journals print biased studies
Posted December 3, 2012 in Product Liability | Product News and Recalls
An article in the Washington Post says major medical journals routinely print studies over which pharmaceutical companies can exert major influence. That company influence “has become a common practice that reflects the growing role of industry money in research,” the article says.
As an example, the Washington Post cites a 17-page article in the New England Journal of Medicine that rated GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia the best of three diabetes drugs. GlaxoSmithKline funded the trial that formed the basis of the article, and ...
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A study suggests that patients taking the blood thinner warfarin may be at greater risk for major bleeding if they also take a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
A report in U.S. News and World Report says researchers found a 60 percent higher risk of major hemorrhage in patients that were taking SSRIs and warfarin, versus those who weren’t taking an SSRI.
Notably, the researchers found no ...
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