Neurontin (GABAPENTIN) The Illegal Corporate Creation

[Guest guest]

http://www.citizen.org/ELETTER/ARTICLES/neurontin.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A March 14, 2002, New York Times article revealed that the manufacturer of the seizure medication gabapentin (NEURONTIN) illegally promoted the drug to prescribing physicians for at least 11 "off-label" (unapproved) medical conditions, using their own employees, euphemistically called "medical liaisons." Many of the bases for the safety and effectiveness of gabapentin for these 11 unapproved uses appears to have been fabrications by the corporation. This included paying physicians to appear as the authors of medical journal articles on unapproved uses for gabapentin when the articles had actually been written by others working under the direction of the company’s marketing department.

This article is based on the Times story and publicly available court documents from a civil complaint filed by the U.S. government against gabapentin’s manufacturer.

Gabapentin was originally sold by Parke-Davis, a subsidiary of Warner-Lambert, which in turn was a corporation acquired by Pfizer, Inc., in 2000. Gabapentin is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only as supplementary treatment for a specific type of seizure know as partial seizures after maximum tolerated doses of older drugs are used. This is a relatively small potential market for gabapentin.

The 11 illegally promoted unapproved uses for gabapentin as outlined in the court documents are:

 

1. Bipolar Disorder. Psychiatrists were told that early results

GO TO THE WEB SITE FOR THE COMPLETE STORY

http://www.citizen.org/ELETTER/ARTICLES/neurontin.htm