Forest Labs in trouble for marketing Celexa to children, kickbacks

[MiaCulpa]

Source: Raw Story - Joe Byrne

Forest Laboratories Inc., a New York-based pharmaceutical company, has been served with a civil complaint today by the Attorney General of Massachusetts for alleged violations of the False Claims Act related to the marketing of Celexa and Lexapro.

Specifically, the statement released by the Department of Justice pointed to a double-blind, placebo-controlled pediatric study that found the common anti-depressant Celexa to be no more effective than a placebo. Furthermore, there was a higher rate of suicidal thoughts and tendencies among the children in the study who took Celexa. For these reasons, the FDA decided that it would withhold approval of Celexa for pediatric use. Ignoring the FDA, “Forest actively promoted pediatric use of the drugs and misled physicians and the public by failing to disclose the results of the negative study,” according to the Department of Justice's statement. It is illegal for a company to promote a drug for uses not approved by the FDA.


Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Forest_Labs_in_trouble_for_marketing_0225.html

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More at the link...

-Diane

[MannyGoldstein]

1. I Like Massachusetts

It's a nice place to live. Our state government basically looks out for us.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Drug companies do this all the time.

[mackerel]

3. All the more reason parents have to be diligent, do the

research on their own and advocate for their child.