Posts Tagged ‘GlaxoSmithKline’

Settlements and Lawsuits Galore

Saturday, July 7th, 2012

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.

Knacking

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

Recently I read this marvelous wordsmithing in the book Kraken by China Miéville:

“You have to persuade the universe that things make sense a certain way. That’s what knacking is.”

So, having a knack for something means, in this sense, making the universe work the way you imagine it should. Of course, the normal meaning of knack is a clever skill or special talent.

That may or may not have anything to do with CCHR or psychiatry, I just could not ignore the opportunity to pass it along.

On the other hand, we might observe that pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is knacking when they try to make their criminal activities go away by saying, “The complaint to which you refer concerns events in 1999, 13 years ago. It does not reflect what would be allowed in GSK today.”

The complaint, of course, is the US government’s allegations of criminal and civil charges against GSK resulting in the settlement announced this week, with GSK fined $3 billion for promoting off-label prescription of the antidepressant drug Wellbutrin, among other charges. (Read more about this here and here.)

Wellbutrin, generic term bupropion, is a newer antidepressant of the type Norepinephrine-Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors. As a short-acting antidepressant and amphetamine-like drug similar to Ritalin and Dexedrine, it is also marketed in slow-release form as Zyban for people trying to quit smoking. While Wellbutrin is not FDA-approved to treat ADHD, doctors still prescribe it for this.

The FDA approved Wellbutrin as an antidepressant in 1985 but because of the significant incidence of seizures at the originally recommended dose (400-600 mg), the drug was withdrawn in 1986. It was reintroduced in 1989 with a maximum dose of 450 mg per day.

It can cause seizures and at rates of four times that of other antidepressants. Fatal heart attacks in those with a history of heart-rhythm disturbances have occurred. Other side effects include agitation, insomnia, increased restlessness, anxiety, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, confusion, weight loss and paranoia. Teens have abused the drug by crushing and snorting it, causing seizures.

One might say that the continued production and prescription of Wellbutrin itself is criminal, although that was not one of the government’s allegations.

Click here for more information about the side effects, often called adverse reactions, of psychiatric drugs.