Pfizer pays $300 million to resolve allegations of off-label marketing of its antipsychotic drug Geodon

“Pfizer targeted pediatrics and adolescents to expand off-label use and maintained on its payroll an army of more than 250 child psychiatrists nationwide. Pfizer regularly paid generous speaking fees to these child psychiatrists to give what were basically promotional lectures about the benefits of Geodon to their peers, who were naturally also child psychiatrists, despite the fact the drug is not FDA-approved or medically indicated to treat children at all.” According to (filing attorney), “the purpose and intent of paying so many child psychiatrists is clear — to gain a foothold within the fastest growing market for antipsychotics — children.”

The Mothers Act Disease Mongering Campaign – Part V

In June 2005, the Seattle Times published a series of reports including one titled, “Suddenly Sick,” by Susan Kelleher and Duff Wilson, with the byline: “The hidden big business behind your doctor’s diagnosis,” and discussed the successful trick of using “risk factors” in past drug marketing campaigns.

“You are suddenly sick,” the authors wrote, “simply because the definitions of disease have changed.” And behind those changes, the Times found, were “the companies that make all those newly prescribed pills.”