Neurontin for Everything
How does a drug firm take an unproven, worthless, and potentially perilous drug like Neurontin, and turn it into a billion dollar blockbuster? through deceit, lies, and bribery reports New York Times health writer and author Melody Peterson.
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Peterson, in her book "Our Daily Meds," reveals the chicanery, pseudoscience and greed behind the marketing of many of today's customary drugs.
The history of one drug in particular, Neurontin, shows just how deceitful, ruthless, and cold-hearted some drug executives can be. The original clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of Neurontin for treating epilepsy were less than impressive.
The studies not only showed that the drug was ineffective, and potentially dangerous, but that in 5-10% of patients it easily increased the frequency and severity of the epileptic seizures.
The Fda found the drug be worthless and had grave concerns over its inherent dangers. But ultimately they gave in to pressure, and allowed Neurontin to be marketed as a second line drug. This meant that it was to be used only after other epilepsy drugs had first been tried and failed.
No problem- drug executives were thought about to make Neurontin into a million dollar blockbusting drug and a small thing like science wasn't going to stop them. It didn't matter that legitimate study had proven that Neurontin was ineffective in the 10 conditions it was being promoted for, together with attentiveness deficit disorder, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, mood disorders, migraines, and bi-polar disorder.
Worried the scientific truth may interfere with their plans for establishing Neurontin as a block buster, Pfizer sought to cover-up these studies together with the one showing Neurontin was no good than a placebo in reducing diabetic nerve pain- "I think we can limit the inherent down sides of the study by delaying the publication for as long a possible...it will be more important to how we write up the study."
Realizing that new studies would be high-priced and most likely negative, they aggressively hatched a plan to ignore science, clinic trials, and morals, and began to store Neurontin for an assortment of chronic illnesses. John Ford a senior marketing administrative had this to say at one sales meeting, "Neurontin for pain, Neurontin for monotherapy, Neurontin for bi-polar, Neurontin for everything." Not to be out done Phil Magistro a senior level sales administrative left a voice message for his sales force stating, " When we get out there, we want to kick some ass. We want to sell Neurontin for on pain. All right? And monotherapy and everything we can talk about. That's what we want to do."
And that's exactly what the sales reps did; they drank the "purple Kool-Aid" and hyped the snake oil for every illness they could think of. And it worked; ultimately 90% of the 2.7 billion dollars in Neurontin sales came from off label use- 90% of the prescriptions were for unproven uses.
So how does a drug firm take an unproven, potentially perilous drug and successfully store it to doctors? Easy, deceive then bribe them. The firm paid marketing copywriters to write pseudoscientific and of procedure incredibly convenient articles on the wonders of Neurontin.
Medical education Services, a ghost writing marketing firm was paid ,000 to originate dozens of fabricated studies on Neurontin. Doctors were then paid ,000 each to "sign-off" on the article. One in-house memo from this group is revealing- "Draft completed. We just need an author." This particular piece was targeted at children with attentiveness deficit disorder. Reconsider the side effects of Neurontin which include:
Muscle pain
Skin rash and itching
Swollen glands
Sore throat and fever
Aggressiveness
Difficulty in concentration
Mental depression
Nightmares
Chills
Increased chance of positive types of seizures
Mood or reasoning changes
Nosebleeds or other unusual bleeding or bruising
Shortness of breath
Sores, ulcers, or white spots on lips or in mouth
Unusual tiredness or weakness
Wheezing, tightness in chest, or troubled breathing
Sales reps were paying doctors to recommend this drug to 10 year olds. Scary huh? Sales reps found doctors were enthusiastic to attend- meet, greet and treat dinners. Doctors were paid to up to 0 to hear sales pitches for Neurontin while dining at 4 star restaurants. The doctors giving these supper talks were paid up to 0,000 a year.
And Neurontin sales executives were also happy to pay doctors 0 each to attend all expense paid vacations together with one at the posh resort Chateau Élan, placed just face Atlanta. Doctors received chronic education hours while being brainwashed on the wonders of Neurontin in the morning, leaving their afternoons free to lounge by the pool, get their daily spa-treatment, play golf, dine on gourmet meals, and enjoy the nightly entertainment, together with free tickets to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Not satisfied with their growing largesse, marketing executives decided to simply pay doctors 0 for every inpatient they placed on Neurontin. In 2004 the lies and deceit campaign came to end- Pfizer pleaded guilty to criminal fraud in the promotion of Neurontin, and agreed to pay 0 million.
In October 2008 a new lawsuit, brought by the same attorney, alleges that the company's misdeeds went much added than originally charged. According to newly unsealed court documents, not only did the firm and its subsidiaries push Neurontin for unapproved uses-the practice at the center of the first suit, which Pfizer admitted to as part of its settlement-they did so knowing that the drug was ineffective for several of those conditions. Pfizer, According to the documents, engaged in "outright deception of the biomedical community, and suppression of scientific truth"-stalling or stopping the publication of negative study results; manipulating both trial designs and data to make the drug look more effective than it was; and using questionable tactics to heighten the drug's image and increase its sales. The interrogate is how many other drugs are being marketed with small to no scientific studies to prove them effective? Could Pfizer's Lyrica, the spitting image of Neurontin (same drug different packaging) be the snake oil? Perhaps, so since the studies for it and fibromyalgia are less than stellar- in spite of the real likelihood that the study was manipulated to yield positive results.
Melody Peterson's book "Our Daily Meds" is a must read for whatever who wants to make informed decisions about their most important asset, their health.
For an in-depth look at fibromyalgia see a 9 part video at http://www.treatingandbeating.com
Dr. Rodger Murphree
205-879-2383
The Truth About Neurontin and Fibromyalgia