Drug Firms Continue to Practice Unethical Marketing

October 6th, 2009. By janem

What’s it going to take to make unscrupulous drug companies come clean? Now we have another drug scandal—this time it’s Seroquel. In 1997 Seroquel was approved by the FDA and at the same time, Study 15 showed that weight gain and diabetes were seen in study patients. But in its infinite wisdom, the FDA said it does not have the authority to place such studies in the public domain; instead the agency deemed the drug “safe and effective”. It’s mind-boggling how a drug company can manipulate a government agency and control publicly available research about their products.

Pharmaceutical companies are supposed to announce publicly when a clinical trial is underway and its goals, but according to a study by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, many tests are conducted without this disclosure and selective results—hiding the results of negative trials and only publishing studies that show their products in a positive light—is widespread.

The study found that only 50 percent of drug trials were publicly announced in an appropriate manner, and medical journals are not consistently insisting that the trials first be published on a public register.

Researchers in Canada, France and Britain reported that drug companies sidestep rules and hide negative test results. Consumers International said that people are not being given facts about the medicines they take because the companies hide the marketing tactics on which they spend billions—and that puts the public in danger.

Same goes for the US. Back in 2004, Merck was caught unethically promoting Vioxx and lawsuits alleged the pharma giant knew its drug could increase the chances of heart attacks and strokes from 2000. It was accused of manipulating study results to play down the risk. That same year, a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) resulted in the company admitting that it hid negative information on its antidepressant Paxil. And GSK did it again, this time with Avandia. Independent researchers found that the diabetes drug increased the risk of heart attacks and death. Lawsuits allege that GSK failed to warn the public about the risk of heart problems, which may have resulted in 83,000 heart attacks since the drug was approved in 1999.

AstraZeneca is now facing more than 9,000 lawsuits over Seroquel, claiming it caused weight gain, hyperglycemia, diabetes, tardive dyskinesia, neuroleptic malignant syndrome and birth defects. And it gets worse: in recent years research funded by taxpayers found that newer antipsychotic drugs such as Seroquel, which are 10 times as expensive, offer little advantage over the older ones.

Astra Zenaca, it’s time to pay back. Too bad people’s health can’t get compensated.

Tags: Big Pharma, Drug Companies

This was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Drugs/Medical . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.