Seroquel’s Maker Buried Findings of Link to Diabetes for Years, Newly Released Court Documents Show

[struggle4progress]

Seroquel’s Maker ‘Buried’ Findings of Link to Diabetes for Years, Newly Released Court Documents Show

AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company behind the popular antipsychotic drug Seroquel, conspired to conceal negative study results showing the drug had caused weight gain and diabetes in some patients, according to newly released company emails and other documents.

Stacks of internal company emails, made public as part of a pending lawsuit against the company regarding alleged injuries linked to Seroquel, detail a pattern of withholding negative clinical study results and other documents which showed the company knew that people taking the drug had a greater risk of developing diabetes ....

http://www.attorneyatlaw.com/2009/02/seroquels-maker-buried-findings-of-link-to-diabetes-for-years-newly-released-court-documents-show/

[struggle4progress]

1. AstraZeneca Seroquel Studies ‘Buried,’ Papers Show (Update2)

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Unfavorable studies about the antipsychotic drug Seroquel were “buried” by AstraZeneca Plc, according to an internal e-mail unsealed as part of litigation over the medicine.

The drugmaker failed to publicize results of at least three clinical trials of Seroquel and engaged in “cherry picking” of data from one of those studies for use in a presentation, an AstraZeneca official said in a December 1999 e-mail unsealed yesterday under an agreement between the company and lawyers for patients. The company faces about 9,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to properly warn users that Seroquel can cause diabetes and other health problems. AstraZeneca fell 6.5 percent.

“The larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data,” John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, told colleagues in the e-mail.

More than 15,000 patients have sued AstraZeneca, claiming the company withheld information of a connection between diabetes and Seroquel use from doctors and patients. Many of the lawsuits also claim AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for unapproved uses ... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aS_.NqzMArG8&refer=home

[struggle4progress]

2. Unsealed documents raise Seroquel questions

February 27, 2009 — 12:28pm ET | By Tracy Staton

AstraZeneca told sales reps to downplay the risk of diabetes in patients taking its antipsychotic drug Seroquel, newly unsealed court documents show. "Our objective is to neutralize customer objections to Seroquel's weight and diabetes profile," according to a transcript of a voicemail sent to salespeople. The message then instructed representatives to "refocus the call" away from diabetes to the drug's tolerability, the transcript shows.

But the documents also show that a company physician had already said that a link between Seroquel and diabetes was "probable in some individuals," the Wall Street Journal reports. "There is reasonable evidence to suggest that Seroquel therapy can cause impaired glucose regulation including diabetes melliutus in certain individuals," Dr. Wayne Geller wrote in a 2000 position paper sent to Dutch regulators.

The company, though, says that the position paper was "an initial draft" that was later revised "after rigorous discussion of the scientific evidence." Dr. Geller himself said in a 2008 deposition that his statement about the diabetes link was "an artifact of an earlier discussion document." And an AstraZeneca spokesman points out that diabetes has been on the list of Seroquel side effects from its launch, though the label has since been updated to include stronger warnings of weight gain, diabetes and hyperglycemia. One of those beefed-up warnings was added last month, the court document show.

The documents--which AstraZeneca had fought to keep private--are sure to create a brouhaha as the company faces more than 9,000 lawsuits from patients who say they were injured by Seroquel. Two of those cases were dismissed for lack of evidence earlier this month, and another 2,300 were also dismissed. Meanwhile, states have sued the company seeking redress for medical expenses paid for patients who allegedly developed complications from using the drug ... http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/unsealed-documents-raise-seroquel-questions/2009-02-27

[Why Syzygy]

3. The same company

associated with a UK organization to 'debunk' new cancer breakthroughs.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=222&topic_id=54845&mesg_id=54866

Someone needs to explain to me why we should take their word for ANYTHING.

[truedelphi]

6. And sigh, yet people continue to take the word of the pharamceuticals

With each decade that passes, it gets harder to fight off these people.

The Chemcial industry is now in control of the language. Just as the elite needed the new terms of "Supply Side Economics" in place to destroy the economy, the clobbering of individuals who detect illness and death in their loved ones immediately following the use of a pharmaceutical product or exposure to other toxins such as pesticides - those observations are now labelled "Anecdotal" and dismissed.

[Why Syzygy]

8. It got a whole lot easier 1/20/2009. nt

[truedelphi]

9. The concept of Obama getting in gives me hope

But he doesn't "get" it on a lot of things. He has that pathetic douche bag Velsick for the Ag Department, a Monsanto dream come true if ever there was one. And so we still have a lot of battles to fight and fight.

The average, casually involved citizen is totally comfortable with getting their political lessons from sound bytes. It is easy, for instance, to be for genetically modified foods and seeds if all you ever have in the way of information is a 60 second commercial telling you about the need to have vitamin A inside rice. And no detailed information about the huge numbers of Indian farmers and Malaysian who kill themselves when they realize that Monsanto lied about how inexpensive buying the herbicide RoundUp would be.

[Why Syzygy]

10. heh. Wouldn't it be cool if President Obama

turned the tables and Velsick ended up harnessing Monsanto by executive order?

[Cleita]

4. K&R

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. this will continue as long as the Fox guards the Henhouse

same thing has been going on with voting machines - the group that certifies
voting machines is too cosy with vendors, plus the vendors pay big bucks for
certification.

We need objective oversight to prevent these things.

[truedelphi]

7. Exactly. n/t