Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

From staff and wire reports

AstraZeneca PLC, which has its U.S. headquarters in Fairfax, was sued by Arkansas for falsely claiming its antipsychotic medicine Seroquel was safer than less-expensive drugs and failing to warn of its risks.

AstraZeneca has engaged in a “course of corporate misconduct and misrepresentation” in violating numerous state laws, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in a lawsuit filed yesterday on behalf of the state’s behavioral health and Medicaid divisions.

The complaint, filed in state court in Little Rock, accused AstraZeneca of engaging in “pervasive false and misleading marketing” of the drug.

The drugmaker “deceived physicians, consumers, the state and others regarding the comparative efficacy of Seroquel to other traditional and atypical antipsychotics,” according to the complaint.

Seroquel, used to treat bipolar disorder, brought in $4.03 billion last year, making it AstraZeneca’s second-best- selling product after Nexium.

URL: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/BUSINESS/80522001/1003