Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16778

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: Electronic Source

Silverman E
Forest Labs In Tentative Deal Over Marketing Probe
Pharmalot 2009 Nov 9
http://www.pharmalot.com/2009/11/forest-labs-in-tentative-deal-over-marketing-probe/

Full text:

The drugmaker reached a tentative settlement with the US Attorney in Boston and the US Department of Justice’s, which charged that its antidepressants and a thyroid drug were marketed improperly. However, a criminal probe continues, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (see page 15).
As it turns, an agreement in principle was reached in May concerning the civil investigation being conducted by federal and state authorities. The penalties are covered by a $170 million reserve Forest created in April. But the arrangement “does not resolve the government’s ongoing investigation into potential criminal law violations” related to the Celexa and Lexapro antidepressants, as well as the Levothroid thyroid drug.
In February, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a lawsuit in U.S. District for the District of Massachusetts alleging Forest marketed the antidepressants for unapproved uses in children, and paid kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe the drugs, Dow Jones reminds us.