[Mari]

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?i...e_for__Million

Drug maker AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $520 million to settle whistleblower lawsuits filed in federal court in Philadelphia that accused the company of engaging in illegal tactics -- including kickbacks to doctors -- to promote so-called "off-label" uses for one of its drugs.

The drug, Seroquel, is an anti-psychotic that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for narrow uses, such as combating schizophrenia or acute manic episodes in those with bipolar disorder. But prosecutors said AstraZeneca set out to market the drug directly to doctors for a wider range of ailments including Alzheimer's disease, anger management, depression and sleeplessness.

Drs. took kickbacks to push Seroquel off label

Alzheimer's disease, anger management, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar maintenance, dementia, depression, mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleeplessness.

Two whistle blowers will share reward money.
Also getting money are state governments, the US gov., . . .

Most of the time I avoid the news.
Today this story caught my attention.

People and companies should play by the rules and if they don't they should pay.

M.

[DiMarie]

So many meds for off label and not enough testing for these uses,

I remember the doc prescribing this as a sleep med, and for a magic pill to control the anger over being in so much pain AND pain control????....I asked him to check her sugar as she always had to have a drink in her hand,
He checked called her and said the sugar was high, but he was not concerned.

Within weeks, she had sugar level over 440!!!!!

The sugar was a side effect and he never monitored.
He was always about prescribing psych meds to chronic pain patients. Of course he thought the pain was in their mind!

[mrsD]

These "fines" are really chump change for Big Pharma.

They are doing this now regularly. Pfizer just was slapped with a 1.2 Billion dollar fine, but they made over 30 billion on frauduent Bextra promotion! They also were fined 680 million for Neurontin. And Lilly just paid over a Billion for Zyprexa.

The Big Pharma companies don't really care. They make a huge profit anyway, on the misery of the patients who were victimized.

Pushing Seroquel on internists to give to non psychiatric patients for insomnia is really really terrible IMO.

[Mari]

I'm so sorry.

Your daughter deserved better care from the docs.

M.

[DiMarie]

Thanks Mari, she did, we all deserve better care then the 5 minutes we are given.

We want to trust our doctors and then get suckered into the med's the pharm rep's push on them as miracle's for what ever our ailments are?

I went to a new neuro and he wanted to try all these samples the reps left him. The Treximet had a side effect reaction to my Lexapro and I thought I was having a heart attack. No thanks, just give me my Toradol and valium that was working perfectly fine for the last 9 years.....

The triptans causing a side effect was not anything I was warned about. On the Internet I saw that if the doctor gives the first time to take it in his/her office in case the heart problem happens.
Nice to be told, should have gone to the ER, but by the time they would see me the effects would be wearing off...

Now I wear a med alert, no compazine and no triptans.