Tag Archives: off-label promotion

Cause for alarm: Antipsychotic drugs for nursing home patients

When a loved one moves into a nursing home, the support of family and friends is particularly important. This is especially true when the nursing home patient has dementia and can’t adequately advocate on his or her own behalf.

A newly released report from my office — the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services — makes clear just how crucial it is for families to monitor and ask questions about medications that such patients receive. The report found that too often, elderly residents are prescribed antipsychotic drugs in ways that violate government standards for unnecessary drug use.

Its about time…With drug companies paying criminal fines of $7 billion, FDA to increase prosecution of Pharma Execs

The FDA plans to increase misdemeanor prosecutions of industry execs as it looks to refocus its Office of Criminal Investigations. The move comes in response to a new report from the General Accountability Office that the OCI suffers from lax oversight, despite increased in funding and staffing over the past decade. In fact, the FDA hasn’t reviewed most OCI offices in more than three years. The OCI investigates counterfeit drugs and other bad stuff, as well as misconduct by FDA employees.

Despite criminal conviction – Drug makers again violated federal law with “off-label” marketing of antipsychotics

Across the U.S., pharmaceutical companies have been pleading guilty to criminal charges or paying penalties in civil cases when the U.S.Department of Justice finds that they deceptively marketed drugs for unapproved uses, putting millions of people at risk of chest infections, heart attacks, suicidal impulses or death.

FiercePharma: Drugmaker Eli Lilly nears another settlement over its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa

Twelve state Zyprexa lawsuits remain outstanding, a spokesman told the Health Blog, and this latest settlement effort would wrap up a “subset” of that number.