Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1649
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
Lewis L.
AstraZenica faces threat of charges in Japan
Times Online 2005 Jun 24
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9068-1667153,00.html
Abstract:
ASTRAZENECA’S Japanese subsidiary and two of its directors face the threat of criminal charges over the fatal side-effects of the company’s Iressa lung cancer treatment.
The families of those who have died after taking Iressa will today present a list of accusations to local prosecutors’ offices in Tokyo and Osaka, claiming that the British firm has breached the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, The Times has learnt.
Keywords:
Iressa lung cancer Japan AstraZenica
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: This article from ‘The Times’ repesents a common set of allegations about drug advertising. On this occasion relating to a lung cancer treatment called Iressa.
1/.exaggerating the benefits
2/.playing down the adverse effects
3/. beginning a drug promotion campaign before the drug is officially approved
Full text: Health
June 24, 2005
AstraZeneca faces threat of charges in Japan
From Leo Lewis in Tokyo
ASTRAZENECA’S Japanese subsidiary and two of its directors face the threat of criminal charges over the fatal side-effects of the company’s Iressa lung cancer treatment.
The families of those who have died after taking Iressa will today present a list of accusations to local prosecutors’ offices in Tokyo and Osaka, claiming that the British firm has breached the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, The Times has learnt.
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AstraZeneca, which is already fighting four civil cases over Iressa, said yesterday that it had not received “official notification” of any criminal actions. The UK’s second-biggest drugs group said that a direct link between Iressa and the deaths of more than 600 Japanese patients had not been “scientifically established”.
The families’ accusations relate to advertisements published by AstraZeneca before the lung cancer drug was formally approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The group has also accused the British company of exaggerating the medical powers of the drug and playing down its side-effects.
The allegations, which are expected to trigger investigations by prosecutors, are levelled against AstraZeneca Japan itself, Masuhiro Kato, the current president, and Martin Wright, his predecessor. Serious breaches of pharmaceutical law carry heavy fines and jail penalties.
The Iressa issue is a hugely emotional one in Japan. The father of a woman who died from the drug’s side-effects accused the company of using Japanese patients as “laboratory animals”.
