E-DRUG: BBC Panorame to air "Secrets of the Drug Trials" Jan 29 Re GSK and
Paxil
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BBC to Air "Secrets of the Drug Trials" on Panorama - Jan. 29, 2007 (Re GSK
and Paxil)
January 26, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baum Hedlund
12100 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 950
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Contact: Robin McCall, Media Relations
Day: (800) 827-0087 or (310) 207-3233 Email:RMcCall@BaumHedlundLaw.com
<mailto:RMcCall@BaumHedlundLaw.com>
www.baumhedlundlaw.com <http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com>
BBC to Air "Secrets of the Drug Trials" on Panorama
Documents Reveal Academic "Thought Leaders" Hired by Drug Maker
Promoted Paxil for Children and Adolescents Despite Clinical Trials
Showing the Drug Was Ineffective and Unsafe
On Monday, January 29, 2007, 8:30 p.m. GMT, BBC-One will air "Secrets of
the Drug Trials," a program detailing the investigation by reporter Shelley
Jofre, which reveals how "one of Britain's biggest drug companies misled
doctors into prescribing the antidepressant Seroxat (known as Paxil in the
US) to teenagers, even after one of its own clinical trials indicated that
they were more likely to become suicidal after taking it." This program is
Panorama's third in a series involving the selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor (SSRI) Paxil.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/listings/programme.shtml?day=nday&service_idA65&
filename 070129/20070129_2030_4223_21585_30
The BBC program touches on a number of important issues, such as:
* Academics serving as spokespersons for the pharmaceutical
industry;
* Medical journal articles ghostwritten by PR companies working
for industry and academics lending their names to the process;
* Promotion of drugs as more effective than they are, while
downplaying side effects.
See the British Medical Journal's review of the program (below): "Inside big
pharma's box of tricks."
Ms. Jofre's October 2002 program "The Secrets of Seroxat" launched a
firestorm of controversy and generated an unprecedented 65,000 telephone
calls and emails to BBC in response. British regulators thereafter appointed
a panel of experts to examine Paxil studies for treatment emergent suicidal
behavior.
On June 10, 2003, the regulators announced that a review of the Paxil
studies showed that the drug failed to demonstrate efficacy and showed "an
increase in the risk of harmful outcomes including episodes of self-harm and
potentially suicidal behavior in the [Paxil] group compared to placebo." Six
months later, on December 10, 2003, U.K. regulators announced they would
contra-indicate the use of most antidepressants in children and adolescents
in the UK. The US FDA followed suit the following year, in 2004, instructing
manufacturers of antidepressants to include a "black box" warning regarding
the increased risk of suicidality in children and adolescents.
Many of the documents in the BBC's upcoming program were obtained through a
consumer fraud class action lawsuit filed by Baum Hedlund. The lawsuit,
which is pending in a California court, was filed on June 21, 2004 against
Paxil's maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) alleging the company suppressed
evidence of Paxil's failed efficacy and increased risk of suicidality in
children and adolescents.
For the past two and a half years, Baum Hedlund has amassed and reviewed
hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and taken numerous depositions
of GSK employees and academic "thought leaders" hired by GSK to promote
Paxil. Although virtually every document produced by GSK is stamped
"confidential," Baum Hedlund attorneys were able to get some of the
documents out from under confidentiality seal by court order or by getting
GSK to concede that the documents were not properly labeled confidential
trade secrets to begin with.
Baum Hedlund attorney and partner Karen Barth Menzies was interviewed for
the program.
The program can be viewed online by going to
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/programmes/panorama/default.stm
Viewers may comment on the program by going to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/discuss_panorama/default.stm
* Link to Baum Hedlund's consumer fraud class action lawsuit
against GSK
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/PaxilConsumerFraudClassAction/Paxil
ConsumerFraudClassAction.htm
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/PaxilConsumerFraudClassAction/GSKCo
nsumerFraudComplaint.pdf
* Link to Lancet "Depressing Research"
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/PaxilConsumerFraudClassAction/Lance
t%20-%20Depressing%20Research.pdf
* Link to CMAJ "Facing the Evidence: antidepressant treatment in
children and adolescents"
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/170/4/489
* Link to NEJM "A Black-Box Warning for Antidepressants in Children?"
by Thomas B. Newman, M.D., M.P.H.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/PaxilConsumerFraudClassAction/Newma
n%20-%20A%20BlackBox%20Warning%20for%20Antidepressants%20in%20Children.pdf
* Links to articles re ghostwriting, academics and
pharmaceuticalindustry.
http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/Science4Sale/Science4Sale.htm
About Baum Hedlund:
Baum Hedlund has the longest track-record handling SSRI antidepressant
litigation having litigated over 3,000 antidepressant cases in the past 16
years. Karen Barth Menzies, Baum Hedlund partner, has been at the forefront
of the SSRI-antidepressant litigation for more than a decade. She is
currently the lead attorney on dozens of Paxil suicide cases and
antidepressant birth defect cases. Karen and her firm have successfully
defeated preemption arguments in a number of cases, including Motus v.
Pfizer and Witczak v. Pfizer. Ms. Barth Menzies has testified three times
before the FDA and also before the California State Senate regarding the
risk of suicide in children, adolescents and adults taking antidepressants.
In 2004 Karen was awarded Lawyer of the Year by Lawyer's Weekly USA and
California Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer magazine. In 2005 she was
named one of The National Law Journal's Top 40 Under 40 and in 2006 she was
named Consumer Attorney of the Year Finalist by Consumer Attorneys of
California. She is the author of many articles related to SSRI
antidepressants.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/attorneys/karenbarthmenzies.htm