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Drug Industry Settlements In 2010 Largest Ever—$2.5 Billion

admin — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:41:35 +0000

NPR November 23, 2010

by Carrie Johnson

Image: Carlos Porto

The Justice Department has collected a whopping $3 billion in settlements this year with help from whistleblowers and a powerful law known as the False Claims Act, Assistant Attorney General Tony West announced this morning.

And guess where $2.5 billion of that $3 billion came from? Big Pharma.

This year’s biggest hauls under the False Claims Act include $669 million of the record-shattering $2.3 billion total the government took from Pfizer over its improper promotion of the painkiller Bextra, $302 million from Astra Zeneca over the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel, and $192 million from Novartis.

West told reporters the Civil War era law had become “one of our most successful civil enforcement tools,” allowing the Justice Department to recover “money that otherwise would have padded the bank accounts of defendants who sought profit over quality.”

And he vowed that the Obama administration would do more to go after individual executives who had green-lighted frauds against the federal government by seeking to bring civil and criminal charges that could put them out of business and in some cases, into federal prison.

“We’re going to hold both companies and individuals accountable,” West said.

Justice Department officials say the 2010 health care recovery is the largest in history, and the total recovery is the second largest, up from some $2.4 billion last year. Altogether, they’ve taken in $5.4 billion since January 2009 under the Act.

Congress recently strengthened the law and expanded the ability of whistleblowers to recover money if they alert the Securities and Exchange Commission to financial fraud.

That, West said, could be one of the next fronts in a battle against fraud that’s been intensifying rapidly.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/11/22/131517940/drug-industry-settlements-in-2010-largest-ever-under-false-claims-act

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One Million Kids on Anti-Psychotics

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:34:03 +0000

Dissident Voice

by Susan Rosenthal, September 25th, 2010

In July, the Washington Post reported that Corporate America is hoarding a record $1.8 trillion in cash while it waits for profit-making opportunities. At the same time, record numbers of American children are being prescribed toxic psychiatric drugs at earlier ages. These two facts are connected.

The corporate class stole its trillions from us, by exploiting workers at home and abroad – paying us less than our labor is worth – and by laying off workers and squeezing the rest to work a lot harder for much less.

They also steal from our children.

Exploitation and deprivation cause parents to be distressed, depressed, angry, anxious and overwhelmed. An estimated 15 million American children (one in five) live with an adult who suffered a major depression in the previous year. Children respond to parental distress with symptoms and behaviors. The greater the parent’s distress, the greater the child’s distress.

Instead of using some of the corporate treasury to invest in families, distressed children are being labeled with mental disorders and drugged into submission. These children are being robbed of their health and the hope of any real improvement in their lives.

For several decades, researchers like Peter and Ginger Breggin have documented the shocking extent to which American children are being drugged with stimulants and anti-depressants.

Now, thanks to the power of drug-company marketing, distressed children are being drugged with powerful anti-psychotics. In adults, these toxic compounds increase the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, suicide, seizures, infection, kidney failure, nervous-system damage and sudden death. The effects on children are unknown.

Last September, an FDA report found that the number of anti-psychotic prescriptions dispensed to children (0-17 years) had risen 22 percent over the previous five years.

The FDA examined six anti-psychotic drugs: Seroquel® (quetiapine); Zyprexa® (olanzapine); Risperdal® (risperidone); Abilify® (aripiprazole); Geodon® (ziprasidone); and Invega® (paliperidone).

In 2008, of the 32 million prescriptions dispensed for these drugs, 4.8 million were dispensed to children (15 percent of the total).

That same year, one million individual children were prescribed these anti-psychotics (19 percent of the total of 5.5 million individuals). Here are the numbers, by age group:: 1,770 children aged 0-2
64,664 children aged 3-6
414,451 children aged 7-12
540,760 children aged 13-17

Diagnoses applied to the infants and toddlers (aged 0-2) included: Attention Deficit Disorder; Mental/Behavior Problems, Behavioral
Problems; Other Emotional Disturbances, and Residual Schizophrenia, a diagnosis that can be made on the basis of “odd beliefs and unusual perceptual experiences.”

A more accurate diagnosis for these children’s symptoms and behaviors would be “Parental Distress due to Heartless Social Policies.” A recent report from the Urban Institute found that 7 percent of all 9-month-old infants live with severely depressed mothers, and 41 percent of 9-month-old infants live with mothers who suffer some form of depression. These rates are higher among mothers living in poverty, who are also more likely to suffer domestic violence.

Only a sick social system would enrich the few by stealing the present lives and future hopes of the many.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/09/one-million-kids-on-anti-psychotics/

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Psych Meds Spike Among Younger Troops—The rise & potential dangers of psychiatric drug use a growing concern

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:28:14 +0000

The Navy Times

by Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry
Friday Sep 3, 2010

Use of psychiatric medications among people ages 18 to 34 — mostly active-duty troops and their spouses — is rising at a significantly higher rate than other age groups in the military health care system, according to data newly released to Military Times.

Overall, the number of prescriptions filled for psychiatric medications rose 42 percent from 2005 to 2009 among Tricare beneficiaries in that age group, according to data provided by Tricare Management Activity in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

That compares to an increase of 24 percent among Tricare beneficiaries ages 45 to 64, mostly retirees. For children 17 and younger, the increase was 18 percent.

All the increases outpace overall growth in the Tricare population over the same period.

Anti-depressants like Zoloft, Wellbutrin and Celexa account for slightly more than half of the prescriptions in this age group. But increasingly, young adults in the military and their spouses are turning to other types of psych meds to treat their mental health problems.

Prescriptions for stimulants, including amphetamines and drugs to treat attention-deficit disorders, more than doubled. And claims for anti-psychotics like Seroquel and Abilify nearly doubled from 2005 to 2009 among beneficiaries ages 18 to 34, the Tricare data show. Seroquel is often used to treat nightmares and sleeping problems related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The rise — and potential dangers — of psychiatric drug use is a growing concern for many military officials and doctors.

The Army also should “conduct comprehensive research and analysis of the impact of increased use of antidepressant, psychiatric and narcotic pain management medications on the force,” the report said.

Last year, the Army issued a series of policies designed to reduce the risks linked to multi-drug use. Another policy is expected out later this year.

Military death records obtained by Military Times show that at least 68 accidental drug deaths in 2009, up from 24 in 2001. In total, at least 430 troops have died from drug use — or, in a small number of cases, alcohol use — in the past decade.

Read the rest of this article here: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/09/military-psych-meds-080910/

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The Over-Prescribing of Psychoactive Drugs to Children: A Scourge of Our Times

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:48:05 +0000

The Huffington Post

September 1, 2010

by Dr. Ronald Ricker and Dr. Venus Nicolino

Today, the administration of psychoactive drugs to children (6-17) is all too common and growing at an alarming rate. These drugs often cause the opposite of the intended effect, often condemning children to a life of misery and ill health. The prescription of these drugs is said to treat “chemical imbalances” which were said to cause ADHD, Depression and Bi-polar disorder. It turns out, however, that what we were calling “disease-causing chemical imbalances,” is simply incorrect . The sad irony is, the inappropriate use of these medications is in fact creating different chemical imbalances, which do cause mental disorders, many of which are both life-long and debilitating.

Furthermore, it is now clear that often we are diagnosing ordinary childhood and adolescent behavior as mental disorders (Wait, children are supposed to be bursting with energy? It’s normal for a teenager to be moody and aloof?). This diagnosing is not only based on this idea of “chemical imbalances,” but also a general and pervasive notion that every non-acceptable behavior is due to a mental illness. And last, but certainly not least, the prescribing of these medications by doctors is based on the disinformation provided them by the FDA, drug manufactures and often fraudulent studies, all in the name of making money, on the backs of our children.

In a recent lecture, respected journalist, writer and Nobel Prize Nominee, Robert Whitaker (PBS, Boston, June 15, 2010) highlighted not only the appallingly unscientific methodology used in the development, prescription and use of psychotropic drugs in school-aged children, but also how hopelessly corrupt and failed the systems that should be regulating the safety of medicines are in this country.

Unfortunately, many drug companies exist for one reason: to make money. As such, the people who run these companies have developed a worldview bereft of any more notion of ethics or morality than British Petroleum. Some drug companies’ success is not based on a drug’s usefulness or the safety of its products, but whether it makes money. The path to more money is simple: find new uses for their old drugs, invent new drugs and find new markets for both new and old drugs. Unfortunately, children are today’s newest market.

The FDA requires a “Successful Drug Trial” to approve new medications. “Trial” is often a misnomer, as the word implies some notion of impartiality and unknown outcome. These “trials” often are more like kangaroo courts. In one “trial,” in this case to prove the usefulness of Prozac, corruption and dishonesty were the rule. Children who responded to placebos were removed from the data, as were negative responders to the actual drug. This meant that the only children who were left in the study group were so-called “positive responders.” And, even then, the researchers and doctors, whose “research” funding was provided by the makers of Prozac, were the very ones to decide which subjects, if any, actually did respond “positively” to the drug. This, of course, is a massive conflict of interest. The doctors, researchers and drug companies all want the same thing — FDA approval and to make more money.

In a 2004 article published in perhaps the most prestigious British medical journal, Lancet, said the trial studies used to provide proof of the usefulness of anti-depressant drugs in children, were “nothing but fraudulent.” Following that assessment, all anti-depressants but Prozac were banned in the UK for use on children. (The fact that Prozac was not banned was based on very dubious, some say dishonest, research as documented above).

The true damage caused by the use of anti-depressant drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. (AKA of SSRI’s: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) by school-aged children is only found by legitimate, longer studies, like those that continued from 17 months to six years. In one study, 25 percent of children who had been on SSRI’s for three years were re-diagnosed with the much more serious disorder of Bi-polar disease. This number increased to 50 percent after six years of SSRI use. Long-term use of new anti-psychotics may lead to even greater problems than the initial disease. Diabetes, morbid obesity and early death have all been linked to the use of these drugs. And, as written by us in a previous blog both short and long term use of stimulant drugs such as Adderall), have numerous serious side effects.

Read the rest of this article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-ronald-ricker-and-dr-venus-nicolino/the-prescribing-of-psycho_b_665838.html

Note: To view all international drug regulatory warnings and studies on psychiatric drugs including those issued specifically for children,visit CCHR’s psychiatric drug search engine here: http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/drug_warnings.php

Also see this video – Drugging Our Children: Side Effects – http://www.cchrint.org/videos/

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Drugged to Death: Soldiers returning from war are being given deadly cocktails of psychiatric drugs

cchrint — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:22:26 +0000

AlterNet
By Martha Rosenberg
March 9, 2010

Sgt. Eric Layne’s death was not pretty.

A few months after starting a drug regimen combining the antidepressant Paxil, the mood stabilizer Klonopin and a controversial anti-psychotic drug manufactured by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, Seroquel, the Iraq war veteran was “suffering from incontinence, severe depression [and] continuous headaches,” according to his widow, Janette Layne.

Soon he had tremors. ” … [H]is breathing was labored [and] he had developed sleep apnea,” Layne said.

Janette Layne, who served in the National Guard during Operation Iraqi Freedom along with her husband, told the story of his decline last year, at official FDA hearings on new approvals for Seroquel. On the last day of his life, she testified, Eric stayed in the bathroom nearly all night battling acute urinary retention (an inability to urinate). He died while his family slept.

Sgt. Layne had just returned from a seven-week inpatient program at the VA Medical Center in Cincinnati where he was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A video shot during that time, played by his wife at the FDA hearings, shows a dangerously sedated figure barely able to talk.

Sgt. Layne was not the first veteran to die after being prescribed medical cocktails including Seroquel for PTSD.

Read entire article: http://www.alternet.org/world/145892/are_veterans_being_given_deadly_cocktails_to_treat_ptsd

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Drugging Kids For Profit: Powerful & dangerous antipsychotic drugs being used on kids more and more often

cchrint — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:28:28 +0000

Ed Silverman
Portfolio.com
January 4, 2010

If elderly people with dementia are so vulnerable to the risks posed by antipsychotics, why are so many nursing-home residents regularly prescribed the medications?

The answer can be found in a controversy with its roots in aggressive marketing and lackadaisical supervision. Known in the medical community as atypical antipsychotics, this group of drugs was originally approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat adults suffering from schizophrenia. They go by snazzy names such as Zyprexa, Geodon, Abilify, and Seroquel. Later, regulators allowed doctors to prescribe them for treating bipolar disorder. Over the past decade, the pills have become a veritable goldmine; in 2008 alone, sales in the U.S. reached $14.6 billion.

But critics say those big sales are actually due, in part, to an epidemic of off-label marketing, which is promoting a drug for unapproved uses, although doctors are free to write a prescription regardless. And so drugmakers encouraged doctors to prescribe these meds for children before the FDA sanctioned their use for youngsters. This was particularly troubling, given that the drugs can cause diabetes and weight gain, side effects that prompted thousands of lawsuits claiming that drugmakers tried to hide evidence of these problems.

Read entire article: http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/health-care/2010/01/04/drugging-kids-for-profit/

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Big Pharma paid $500,000 to Chicago psychiatrist who used children as guinea pigs

cchrint — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:45:58 +0000

E. Huff
NaturalNews.com
December 18, 2009

A federal lawsuit has been filed against pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for its role in paying Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein nearly $500,000 over the course of a decade to conduct research and to promote its anti-psychotic drug, Seroquel. Reinstein is being accused of wrongfully preying on thousands of mentally-ill patients in order to rake in profits for AstraZeneca.

Reinstein has a long history of working with AstraZeneca, receiving regular payments for speeches he would make across the country promoting the drug. AstraZeneca was also paying a for-profit research company, Uptown Research Institute, who in turn was paying Reinstein consulting fees for his services.

Cited in the lawsuit was the fact that Reinstein would continually prescribe roughly double the amount of drugs other psychiatrists would prescribe for the same conditions. When patients would report their pain and suffering due to the tremendous side effects of such drugs and their abnormally high dosages, Reinstein would largely ignore their concerns.

Read entire article: http://www.naturalnews.com/027765_psychiatrists_Seroquel.html

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Tighter rules sought against using anti-psychotic drugs to chemically restrain the frail & elderly

cchrint — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:23:44 +0000

Sam Roe and Christina Jewett
Chicago Tribune
December 20, 2009

Health advocates are calling for tough new rules on the use of anti-psychotic drugs in Illinois nursing homes, including tighter controls on doctors who prescribe the powerful medications.

“Medical care should help you get better, not get worse,” said Wendy Meltzer of Illinois Citizens for Better Care, an advocacy group for nursing home residents.

A Tribune investigation recently showed how many frail and vulnerable Illinois nursing home residents have been unnecessarily dosed with anti-psychotics, leading to harm and an increased risk of death. One psychiatrist, the Tribune found in a joint investigation with ProPublica, provided assembly-line care to thousands of mentally ill patients.

The advocates want Gov. Pat Quinn’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force to address these problems. While the task force has focused on violent felons housed in nursing facilities, chairman Michael Gelder said the group will also target the misuse of psychotropic drugs.

Read entire article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-psychotropics-reformdec20,0,3977364.story

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Drugmaker pays psychiatrist nearly $500,000 to promote antipsychotic drug Seroquel despite misgivings about his research

cchrint — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:47:55 +0000

Christina Jewett, ProPublica
SamRoe, Chicago Tribune
November 11, 2009

Executives inside pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca faced a high-stakes dilemma.

On one hand, Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein was bringing the company a small fortune in sales and was conducting research that made one of its most promising drugs look spectacular.

On the other, some worried that his research findings might be too good to be true.

As Reinstein grew irritated with what he perceived as the company’s slights, a top executive outlined the scenario in an e-mail to colleagues.

“If he is in fact worth half a billion dollars to (AstraZeneca),” the company’s U.S. sales chief wrote in 2001, “we need to put him in a different category.” To avoid scaring Reinstein away, he said, the firm should answer “his every query and satisfy any of his quirky behaviors.”

Putting aside its concerns, AstraZeneca would continue its relationship with Reinstein, paying him $490,000 over a decade to travel the nation promoting its best-selling antipsychotic drug, Seroquel. In return, Reinstein provided the company a vast customer base: thousands of mentally ill residents in Chicago-area nursing homes.

Read entire article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-drugs-seroquel-reinsteinnov11,0,6067737.story

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Children on antipsychotics 3 times more likely to develop diabetes (a known side effect of antipsychotics)

cchrint — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:51:58 +0000

Kelly Sinoski
Vancouver Sun
November 11, 2009

Children and youth on certain antipsychotic medications are more prone to getting diabetes and becoming fat, according to a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

But the British Columbia doctors involved in the two-year study say parents shouldn’t rush to take their children off the drugs and instead should consult their physicians on ways to monitor and beat the metabolic side-effects.

“On the one hand, the medication has significant and worrying side-effects,” said study co-author Dr. Jana Davidson, medical director of child and adolescent mental health and addiction programs at BC Children’s Hospital.

“On the other hand, in some of these cases the kids being on medication is what allows them to function in their lives and allows them to stay in their families.”

About 6,000 youth in B.C. are on antipsychotic medications and prescription rates have been soaring in the past five years, according to the study.

Between 2002 and 2006, prescriptions of atypical or second-generation antipsychotics for B.C. youth rose by about 22 per cent, from one in 200 youth to one in 154.

Read entire article: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Children+antipsychotic+drugs+more+prone+diabetes+Canadian+study/2212393/story.html

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CCHR International » anti-psychotic

Drug Industry Settlements In 2010 Largest Ever—$2.5 Billion

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One Million Kids on Anti-Psychotics

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Psych Meds Spike Among Younger Troops—The rise & potential dangers of psychiatric drug use a growing concern

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