Seroquel in the US…Seroquel in the EU…

October 9th, 2009. By AbiK

I was reading Jane’s post on drug companies’ unethical marketing tactics and thinking about Seroquel. As Jane pointed out (and as is reported over at bloomberg.com yesterday), Seroquel’s manufacturer, Astra Zeneca,

“advised its sales force to promote the antipsychotic drug Seroquel as “weight neutral” four years after company research found “clinically significant” weight gains in users, internal documents show.”

Now, given this revelation, and given Seroquel’s reported link to increased risk of diabetes, one might question what’s going on over in the EU where a panel recently gave AstraZeneca the green light for the prevention of major depression recurrence.

In a quote from the company (businessweek.com, 9/29/09),

“Following this new indication, Seroquel and Seroquel XR are the only agents approved in the European Union to treat all phases of bipolar disorder acute depressive episodes, acute manic episodes and maintenance treatment to prevent recurrence of any mood event in bipolar disorder.”

Oh, and in case you forgot, an application for the same (ie, to treat major depressive disorder) has been pending in the US since being filed in February, 2008.

Makes you wonder if the two continents across the pond from one another ever speak to one another…

Tags: Seroquel

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