Now those damaged by the questionable marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies get more justice!

According to the Attorney General of Washington State, AstraZeneca, manufacturer and marketer of the antipsychosis drug Seroquel® will pay for their improper marketing and advice to medical professionals.

Seroquel is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) and other specific conditions.

But AstraZeneca saw that more money could be made if medical professionals prescribed this drug for other – but unapproved – conditions. And so, at special doctors’ conferences conveniently located at resorts, or through the use of paid articles for medical publications, AstraZeneca managed to promote the use of Seroquel for unapproved conditions without openly advertising these uses.

And thus it was that between 2001 and 2006, AstraZeneca cleverly succeeded in convincing doctors to prescribe Seroquel to treat “off-label” conditions such as aggression, Alzheimer’s, anger management, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dementia and sleeplessness.

In fact, while Seroquel’s prescribing information clearly states that the drug was not tested or approved for use in children, this sly marketing campaign led health providers to wrongly prescribe the drug to children and adolescents in long-term care facilities. Since many of these facilities are publicly funded, taxpayers ended up paying millions of dollars through the Medicaid program for inappropriate drugging of children.

Ten million dollars will be paid to the Washington State coffers, part of a $520 million settlement AstraZeneca reached with several states and the federal government.

That sounds like a great deal of money, but, put into proper perspective, this is only about 10 percent of the company’s Research and Development budget alone!

In further proof that shady marketing tactics just don’t pay, at the beginning of 2009, AstraZeneca announced the elimination of 15,000 jobs to occur over the next four years. We can only hope that many of those involved in these unscrupulous tactics are among those laid off.

Source: Washington State Office of the Attorney General, AG McKenna announces multi-million dollar settlement with drug maker http://www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?&id=25638
Source: Seroquel Prescribing Information, January 22, 2010,
http://www.seroquel.info/_mshost7516343/8866822/seroquel-product-information,
Source: AstraZeneca PLC Statement, Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results 2008, January 29, 2009,
http://www.astrazeneca.com/_mshost3690701/content/resources/media/investors/AZN-Q4-2008/q4-results-2008-narrative.pdf

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