The darker side of drugs
In June 2004, New York state attorney Eliot Spitzer filed a case
at the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan claiming that GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK) had deliberately withheld negative information on the
drug Seroxat. Seroxat is one of the world’s biggest selling
and most successful antidepressants.
The Seroxat saga began when it was revealed on BBC’s
Panorama programme ‘Secrets of Seroxat’ in October
2002 to be an addictive drug with serious side effects —
information that the manufacturer GSK, it turns out, was aware
of.
But the company says it never withheld the information and
published data on its web-site that showed the drug to be
broadly ineffective in young people and that it increased
the risk of suicidal behaviour. GSK said that this information
was made available in the past. But Spitzer said that the
company carried out five studies into the drug but published
only one.
The sad thing is that Seroxat helps a lot of people. But
the latest drama will only serve to cast a shadow over Seroxat,
GSK and other drug companies — an unfortunate state of
affairs when people are living longer and healthier lives
largely as a result of the work these companies are doing.
By Marina Murphy, News Editor, Chemistry & Industry
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