Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14413

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Goldstein J.
Glaxo Pays $40 Million in (Another) Paxil Settlement
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2008 Oct 2
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/02/glaxo-pays-40-million-in-another-paxil-settlement/?mod=yahoo_hs

Full text:

GlaxoSmithKline is shelling out another $40 million to deal with the fallout over the use of its antidepressant Paxil in kids. This time, the money is going to insurers who paid for the drug to be used in children and adolescents.

A class-action lawsuit argued that Glaxo had promoted the drug for use in children, while withholding evidence that the drug was neither safe nor effective in kids. Glaxo denied those charges and told the WSJ it settled to “avoid the costs, burdens and uncertainties of ongoing litigation.”

The whole Paxil and kids thing has been a long-running problem for Glaxo. Last year, the company agreed to pay more than $60 million to settle a lawsuit brought by parents (and Public Citizen ran a YouTube video to encourage parents to collect their settlement money).

This summer, the WSJ reported that Glaxo is still being investigated by the feds, who have been looking into how the company portrayed Paxil’s potential link to suicidal behavior to doctors and the FDA.

And earlier this year, British regulators found that the company held back evidence that suggested the drug increased the risk of suicidal behavior in people under 18. “We firmly believe we acted properly and responsibly in first carrying out this important clinical trials program and then informing the regulatory agencies when we identified a potential increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in patients under 18,” a Glaxo official said at the time.