We’ve mentioned the GlaxoSmithKline settlement this past week where GSK will pay a $3 billion fine, the largest health-care fraud settlement in U.S. history (to date) for illegally marketing psychiatric drugs Wellbutrin and Paxil for off-label use, and making false representations regarding their safety and efficacy, among other criminal and civil charges.
Of course, GSK’s gross profit for 2011 was over $32 billion, so they may be bleeding but they’re not dead yet.
The St. Louis Business Journal this week discusses the settlement’s impact in Missouri: GSK will pay $31.9 million to Missouri’s Medicaid program under the settlement.
Meanwhile, Missouri residents are being asked if they had any children who took Celexa or Lexapro between 2002 and 2009 and were under the age of 18 at the time, because they may have a claim against the manufacturer, Forest Labs.
Forest Labs, the manufacturer of the antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro, paid the government a settlement in 2010 because it illegally promoted Celexa for use in children and adolescents despite the fact it had not been approved for marketing in the United States. Forest Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Forest Labs, based in St. Louis, Missouri, also was penalized for only publicizing positive Celexa study results in adolescents to doctors, while choosing to withhold the negative results.
If your child took Celexa or Lexapro between 2002 and 2009 in Missouri, was under the age of 18 at the time he/she took it, and you paid for the prescriptions of Celexa or Lexapro for your child, you may qualify to be the next class representative in a class action in Missouri. Click here to find out more about this.
Click here for more information about Celexa and Lexapro side effects.
Of course, the real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior or study problems as “diseases.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are dangerous.
It is vital that you, your family, and your friends and associates watch the video documentary “Making A Killing – The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging”. Containing more than 175 interviews with lawyers, mental health experts, the families of psychiatric abuse victims and the survivors themselves, this riveting documentary rips the mask off psychotropic drugging and exposes a brutal but well-entrenched money-making machine. The facts are hard to believe, but fatal to ignore. Watch the video online here.