AstraZeneca accusata di minimizzare rischio diabete con Seroquel

AstraZeneca Accused of Downplaying Seroquel 
Diabetes Risk

October 8, 2009

Orlando, FL
Defective product personal injury, together with the alleged attempts by Seroquel manufacturer AstraZeneca to downplay concern over diabetes and weight gain, have combined to foster lawsuits by upwards of 15,000 Seroquel patients.
Now, the order by a federal judge in Orlando to unseal sales call notes made by AstraZeneca representatives paints a vivid picture as to how AstraZeneca employees attempted to mitigate concern over diabetes risk involving Seroquel.
According to a Bloomberg News report that appeared September 23rd in the Wilmington, Delaware News Journal, a saleswoman employed by AstraZeneca told a US doctor that Seroquel did not cause diabetes and downplayed the concern. This, four years after AstraZeneca warned physicians in Japan as to Seroquel's links with the disease.
It was in 2002 that AstraZeneca alerted Japanese physicians after the manufacturer received reports of diabetes-related cases tied to Seroquel, "where causality with the drug could not be ruled out."
Four years later the AstraZeneca sales rep joined a colleague in meeting with a physician who was complaining of "getting a lot of flak" from patients with regard to reports of diabetes risk.
According to the contents of the sales call notes, the AstraZeneca employee assured the doctor "there has been no causative effect" linking Seroquel and diabetes. As a result of that assurance, the doctor "said he would not quit writing" prescriptions for Seroquel "due to this, at this time," the employee reported in her call notes.
In a similar example, another Seroquel representative reported to his superiors at AstraZeneca in 2005 that he had "discussed weight gain associated with atypicals (the class of drug to which Seroquel belongs)" with a doctor. He went on to report in his notes that he assured the doubting physician of a low incidence of weight gain amongst Seroquel users and encouraged the doctor to make Seroquel his "first line choice."

Seroquel Side Effects Pooh-Poohed

Another revelation surfaced earlier when other documents were unsealed. 
According to Bloomberg, AstraZeneca coached its sales force in the art of deflecting questions about weight gain associated with Seroquel. One AstraZeneca manager, in a 2005 voicemail, offered the US sales force information they could employ to "neutralize customer objections to Seroquel's weight and diabetes profile."
According to Bloomberg the potential for diabetes and weight gain had been observed in some clinical trials—thus the concern was known at the time Seroquel was approved in 1997. Evidence suggests that AstraZeneca attempted to downplay that risk. While the manufacturer warned doctors in Japan over the importance of monitoring blood-sugar levels in 2002, that same warning wasn't made to US doctors until two years later.

#AstraZeneca #Seroquel #Rischi #Diabete #CauseLegali

Studio: farmaci come Abilify potrebbero non aiutare con lo stress

Study: Drugs Like Abilify May Not Help with Stress

August 27, 2011

Washington, DC
A new study suggests that drugs like Abilify may not be effective in dealing with severe stress. Furthermore because of the risk of Abilify side effects, these drugs may be more risky for patients than necessary. Concerns about Abilify side effects include problems with Abilify for children and concern about problems with Abilify and pregnancy.
The study, which was reported in The New York Times (08/02/11), suggests that drugs used to treat severe post-traumatic stress symptoms have approximately the same effectiveness as placebos but also carry serious side effects. Published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the study examined the use of Risperdal to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress symptoms. Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication, is in the same class of drugs as Abilify and Seroquel, leading experts to conclude that the same results could be found of Abilify.

Researchers found that veterans who were given Risperdal to treat post-traumatic stress had a similar recovery rate as those who were given a placebo. After six months of treatment, approximately five percent of veterans in both groups recovered and between 10 and 20 percent had some improvement, but had not fully recovered. This led researchers to conclude that treatment with the medication did not have an overall benefit for the veterans.
In February 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about the use of Abilify during pregnancy. According to the warning, use of Abilify while pregnant could cause abnormal muscle movements and withdrawal in infants exposed to the medications prior to birth. Symptoms of these conditions include agitation, abnormal muscle tone, tremors and severe difficulty breathing.
The FDA noted that a search of the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) through October 29, 2008, found 69 cases of neonatal events, including abnormal muscle movements or withdrawal with all antipsychotic drugs. The agency reported that it was not known if the cause of the events were drug toxicity or drug withdrawal. Onset of symptoms ranged from birth to one month after birth. According to the FDA, some infants recovered on their own, while others required intensive care and prolonged hospitalization.

Women who take Abilify and are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant should discuss their options with their doctor.
Abilify Legal Help
#Abilify #Aripiprazole #Gravidanza #Veterani #Rischi