Tangled web of corruption,lies and public health safety:AstraZeneca & GSK: Seroquel & Paxil(Seroxat) : Seroquel for insomnia: lawsuit

An Uncontrolled Experiment


Treatment of psychosis with dibenzothiazepine antipsychotic-Seroquel.

Agent: Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Lp Global Intellectual Property - Wilmington, DE, US
Inventors: Brian Ault, Gilbert Block, Martin Brecher, Wayne MacFadden, Robin McCoy, Margaret Minkwitz, Jamie Mullen, Ellis Wilson

AstraZeneca Google's Wayne MacFadden, former medical director for AstraZeneca now under scrutiny in federal court concerning alleged promises of sexual favors for inside information of AstraZeneca's competitors, on a regular basis and today, Martin Brecher.So I thought I'd take a look at who AstraZeneca UK wants to find on the Internet, and I realize that I'd already had Martin Brecher in a post, when I wrote about the patent/inventor regarding Seroquel and Wayne MacFadden. But, what was interesting is what I found when I Googled Martin Brecher.

Martin Brecher used to work at GSK (Paxil/Seroxat) and then moved on to AstraZeneca (Seroquel). Both medications are highly controversial with regard to data being truthful and/or buried and hidden from the public, and both medications have caused alleged bodily harm to patients due to using the drugs.


FROM the Martin Brecher zoominfo link:(to sources about Martin Brecher)

truthman30 writes:By October of 1990, FDA had decided the issue of suicide on antidepressants was as Martin Brecher of FDA put it: "not .. a real issue, but rather as a public relations problem" (Brecher 1990)(appendix 7). My question is whether CSM/MCA had made a similar decision.

Paxilprotest writes:Evidence of SKB=s knowledge of the withdrawal reactions its drug was causing can also be found in a report to Dr. Martin Brecher of the FDA which disclosed subjective reporting gathered from patients by clinical investigators who told SKB management that Paxil was dangerously addictive.

This article about Paxil use and teens:

"A Suicide Side Effect?
What parents aren't being told about their kids' antidepressants"-2004,Rob Waters, San Francisco Chronicle

"For 16-year-old Angela Reich*, 2002 was a year of hell. First, the Palo Alto teenager was diagnosed with a rare form of highly aggressive cancer. Then she went through months of debilitating chemotherapy that made her nauseous, caused her hair to fall out and kept her in bed for much of her last year of high school. She handled it all with unflappable poise and good humor until it seemed she was out of the woods. But the worst began when she started taking the antidepressant Paxil."
The psychiatrist prescribed Paxil, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) similar to its famous predecessor, Prozac. On a dose of 5, then 10, then 15 milligrams a day, Angela soon started feeling better. Five weeks after she began taking the medication, Angela and her mother met with the psychiatrist, who suggested another boost in dosage. "He said she's doing well now; she could be doing even better on 20 milligrams," Reich remembers. She was hesitant, but Angela wanted her old life back and thought it made sense to try. The next day, she started on the higher dose.

Restless Legs, Sleepless Nights (akathisia)

Within days, Reich says, her daughter was acting strangely. The first change was Angela couldn't keep her leg still. "She'd be sitting in a chair and her knee would be jerking up and down." She became irritable and had more trouble sleeping. Her parents would ask about her restless, jerking leg and she would snap at them to leave her alone.

Summer 2004

"There is an increase in the rate of self-harm and potentially suicidal behavior in this age group," said a statement from the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). "It has become clear that the benefits (of Paxil) in children for the treatment of depressive illness do not outweigh these risks."

Biological solutions to behavioral problems were becoming increasingly acceptable, even fashionable. "I think there's been a revolution in the way people think about behavior," says Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek(CA). "The idea that children's behavior is the product primarily of their genetics and biochemistry was promoted by American psychiatry and hijacked by the drug industry. It's simply become more acceptable to see behavior as a reflection of an imbalance in chemistry rather than an imbalance in life."
~

2009 Seroquel lawsuit, Insomnia use

From Bloomberg:AstraZeneca may link Seroquel, Diabetes, Doctor says March 11, 2009

FROM THE ARTICLE

"A study by AstraZeneca Plc points to a link between its antipsychotic drug Seroquel and the onset of diabetes, a prospective expert witness told a judge at a hearing in a product-liability case.

Dr. Leonid Poretsky, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, told Delaware Superior Court Judge Joseph R. Slights III that his review of AstraZeneca’s unpublished “Study 125” links Seroquel to elevated blood- sugar. The company posted the study on its Web site."

Insomnia, Diabetes

Nina Scaife, 46, of Kansas City, Kansas, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes after being treated with low doses of Seroquel for insomnia, according to her lawyer, Paul Pennock. Scaife sued AstraZeneca in April 2006 in Wilmington, where the company’s U.S. headquarters is located.

Pennock said scientific evidence will prove the link between the drug and the disease.

Jane Thorpe, an AstraZeneca lawyer, told Slights the evidence is “devoid of scientific merit.” The plaintiff’s expert witnesses should be disqualified and the case dismissed, Thorpe said.

AstraZeneca has been sued by more than 15,000 people who claim the company withheld information about links between diabetes and Seroquel use from doctors and patients. Seroquel had $4.45 billion in sales for 2008, and is the company’s second-biggest seller after the ulcer treatment Nexium.

If Slights allows Scaife’s lawsuit to proceed, it would be the first such case to go to trial, on June 29.(2009)

The case is Scaife v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, 06C- 04-218, Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County (Wilmington).

Patient on trial: Innocent victim of corruption, fraud and profit

"In a pre-trial brief in Delaware, AstraZeneca lawyer Michael P. Kelly suggested Scaife’s diabetes was caused by factors such as her lifestyle, including a diet of “Slurpees and doughnuts, fish and fries from McDonald’s and Burger King, and a lot of Chinese food.”
~

Who is on trial? Who or what is held accountable? AstraZeneca has internal documents that prove the company knew diabetes was a risk as a result of taking Seroquel,before it was marketed to patients. Seroquel is not approved for use for insomnia. I was prescribed Seroquel for insomnia in 2006.

AstraZeneca is attempting to do what is so common in psychiatry: blame the patient for a drug's side effect. I personally hope that Nina Scaife stands tall and speaks out, being a trailblazer for patients worldwide with regard to permanent bodily injury due to the use of Seroquel.