Tag Archives: birth defects

That British Drug Maker Glaxo’s $1 Billion Paxil Settlements Were Disclosed by Press – Not Drug Maker – Is Cause for Concern

The fact that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has paid $1 billion to settle lawsuits related to Paxil was disclosed by Bloomberg and not the company itself illustrates how lousy financial disclosure rules are in Europe and why drug companies based there cannot be trusted to tell the truth about what is going on with their litigation liabilities and, by extension, the safety of their drugs.

Glaxo Said to Have Paid $1 Billion in Paxil Suits Including About $390 Million for Suicides/Attempted Suicides Linked to Drug

The $1 billion “would be worse than many people are expecting,” said Navid Malik, an analyst at Matrix Corporate Capital in London. “Paxil’s been different from most drugs,” said Harris Pogust, a lawyer from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, who is handling suicide and withdrawal cases. “You’ve had three major personal injury litigations over one drug — the suicide, the birth defect and the withdrawal cases. To have three significant problems with one drug is really unusual.”

And yet another FDA warning – Depakote – used to treat people diagnosed “Bipolar” found to cause severe birth defects

The FDA notified health care professionals and patients about the increased risk of neural tube defects and other major birth defects, such as craniofacial defects and cardiovascular malformations, in babies exposed to valproate sodium and related products (valproic acid and divalproex sodium) during pregnancy.

Pregnant women should stop medications which cause birth defects: “Psychiatric drugs can & should be avoided”

Dr. Anick Berard, at the University of Montreal in Quebec, said medications such as those which treat severe acne, anxiety and psychiatric drugs, antibiotics, and many drugs prescribed for heart disease and medical conditions “can and should be avoided” by women who are pregnant.

The New American: The Healthcare Bill’s Sops to the Mental-health Industry

If enacted, the provisions in the bill will serve to prop up an already misrepresented collection of disorders and channel ever-more-billions into the psycho-pharmaceutical industry that could be better directed toward research for cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other known, physical ailments that cost families a fortune and send their victims to gruesome, painful deaths.