Robin Williams was on drugs at the time of his death...

“The antidepressant found 

in Williams' toxicology test, 

Mirtazapine (Remeron), 

has 10 drug regulatory agency warnings 

citing suicidal ideation.”

If news headlines were to be believed about the autopsy findings of beloved actor/comedian Robin Williams, who tragically committed suicide nearly two months ago, no drugs were found in his system at the time of his death, as evidenced by headlines from USA Today, NBC News, the BBC and others proclaiming “no alcohol or drugs” were found. These headlines couldn’t be more wrong. 

The medical examiner’s report cites an antidepressant drug was in Williams’ system at the time of his death. The particular antidepressant, Mirtazapine, (also known as Remeron) carries 10 international drug regulatory warnings on causing suicidal ideation. 

According to the autopsy results, not only was Williams under the influence of antidepressant drugs, but the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel was also found at the scene and appears to have been recently taken by Williams. While toxicology tests apparently were negative for the antipsychotic Seroquel, the fact remains that a bottle of Seroquel prescribed to Williams on August 4th, just seven days prior to Williams’ suicide, was missing 8 pills. The Seroquel instructions advise to take one pill per day as needed. Side effects associated with Seroquel include psychosis, paranoid reactions, delusions, depersonalization and suicide attempt.

The question that has to be asked is why the press continues to promote the idea that no drugs were found in Williams’ system? At what point did mind-altering psychiatric drugs, which have side effects rivaling those of heroin or crack cocaine, stop being called drugs?And for those in the press who did “mention” the fact that Williams was found to have antidepressants in his system, the acknowledgement seems to promote the fact that “therapeutic concentrations” of prescription psychiatric drugs “improved his condition and kept him active until his death.” (Más)

Ver también todo Seroquel en PHARMACOSERÍAS

AstraZeneca: Solución ante malas noticias...

Click sobre imagen para ampliar

AstraZeneca tried to “bury” adverse medical studies about Seroquel, its blockbuster drug, internal company memos released in an American court case have revealed.

The Anglo-Swedish drugs group is being sued by a total of 9,200 patients, most of whom allege that the Seroquel treatment for psychiatric disorders gave them diabetes. As part of a class-action case before a federal court in Florida, AstraZeneca released 102 documents, including an e-mail in which a member of staff praised a colleague for doing a “great smoke and mirrors job” on company research known as “study 15”, which found that Haldol, a cheaper generic rival, was more effective than Seroquel.

John Tumas, head of the company's publications team, said that it had “buried” three studies and was considering burying a fourth, called Costar. Mr Tumas said: “The larger issue is how do we face the outside world when they begin to criticise us for suppressing data.” Another e-mail implied that the Costar study showed that Risperdal, a rival medicine, was more effective than Seroquel.

Other documents imply that the company knew that it caused diabetes and weight problems long before it put prominent warnings on its labelling. Wayne Geller, a company doctor, wrote in 2000 that “there is reasonable evidence to suggest that Seroquel therapy can cause impaired glucose regulation including diabetes mellitus in certain individuals”. An AstraZeneca spokesman said that the paper was a draft and Dr Geller later concluded that it did not cause diabetes. The spokesman added: “None of the documents can obscure the fact that AstraZeneca acted responsibly and appropriately as it developed and marketed Seroquel.” (Mas...)

ASTRA ZENECA: Llamada al orden por la FDA por promoción "off-label" de SEROQUEL

The comments, according to the agency, created a new "intended use" for Seroquel and Seroquel XR for which the products lack adequate directions. The FDA said that in addition to the reps oral comments, AstraZeneca sent a mailing to the same healthcare professional regarding unapproved uses for Seroquel. The agency said these promotional activities and materials misbrand the drugs in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Mas...

Sexo en Astra Zeneca (Parte II)...

Ayer "posteamos" sobre este turbio affaire de "Sexo,mentiras y...Astra Zeneca... Hoy tenemos nuevos aportes.





Now, a new tale of conflict of interest has cropped up, one involving a senior medical official at AstraZeneca responsible for the drug Seroquel who had sexual relationships with a British researcher, who studied the drug and wrote positively of it, and with an American medical ghostwriter, who among other things assisted in writing two published academic papers known as BOLDER I and BOLDER II, in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2005 and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology in 2006 that were at the heart of Seroquel's 2006 approval by the FDA for bipolar depression. According to court records, there is evidence Macfadden gave one of the women prescription painkillers and exchanged emails with them showing relationship of "control and dependence."

Simply put, I've never seen anything quite like these conflicts in my years of working the mental health beat.

"Anything like this clearly makes the data suspect if not dubious," says David Egilman, a Brown University professor and expert witness in one of the Zyprexa class action lawsuits (he was the initial leaker of the Zyprexa documents) and an expert on clinical trials and conflict of interest. "What are the journals, the FDA and the medical boards going to do when it becomes public?"

There are obviously all kinds of questions about conflict of interest in these relationships. Those questions, in my opinion, extend to the integrity of data, statistical methodology, study findings, publications, medical communications and drug approval applications tied to the BOLDER studies, as well as to many recent AstraZeneca-funded studies of Seroquel use in bipolar depression, as well as to several publications on schizophrenia and Seroquel.

Mas...

Será bueno que, a todo nuevo empleado de Astra Zeneca, se le provea de un ejemplar de esta
"Moral Victoriana" a modo de libro de cabecera o, mejor "Código de conducta"...,que en la cama hacen otras cosas y no tendrían tiempo para leer.
Buena falta les hace...

SEROQUEL: AstraZeneca oculta cosas...

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc “buried” unfavorable studies on its antipsychotic drug Seroquel, according to an internal e-mail unsealed as part of litigation over the medicine.

The drugmaker failed to publicize results of at least three clinical trials of Seroquel and engaged in “cherry picking” of data from one of those studies for use in a presentation, an AstraZeneca official said in a December 1999 e-mail unsealed yesterday under an agreement between the company and lawyers for patients. The London-based company faces about 9,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to properly warn users that Seroquel can cause diabetes and other health problems.

Mas...

Antecedentes...

AstraZeneca miente...una vez más.

"Because of these documents, Astra Zeneca’s credibility is officially out the window. They should not be allowed to be involved in any medical education event. They should be banned from hiring promotional speakers and from supporting CME.

AstraZeneca has lied to the medical community once too often. "

Ver...

The saga of Study 15 has become a case study in how drug companies can control the publicly available research about their products, along with other practices that recently have prompted hand-wringing at universities and scientific journals, remonstrations by medical groups about conflicts of interest, and threats of exposure by trial lawyers and congressional watchdogs.

Eight years after Study 15 was buried, an expensive taxpayer-funded study pitted Seroquel and other new drugs against another older antipsychotic drug. The study found that most patients getting the new and supposedly safer drugs stopped taking them because of intolerable side effects. The study also found that the new drugs had few advantages. As with older drugs, the new medications had very high discontinuation rates. The results caused consternation among doctors, who had been kept in the dark about trials such as Study 15.

The federal study also reported the number of Seroquel patients who discontinued the drug within 18 months: 82 percent.

Mas...

Schulz, chief of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, reported that the drug was "significantly superior" to the old gold-standard treatment for schizophrenia. In a press release by the manufacturer, AstraZeneca, he touted the "dramatic benefits" of Seroquel's class of drugs.

But newly released documents show that AstraZeneca knew the research didn't support the claim -- and knew two months before Schulz went public with it.

Mas...

ASTRA arrastra al paro...

Drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC will cut roughly 24 percent of its U.S. sales force in an effort to curb costs, part of a company-wide restructuring announced in 2010.

The British company said Wednesday that it will cut 1,150 employees, including sales representatives and managers. It employs 14,000 people in North America, with most of those working in the United States. Wednesday's announced layoffs are in addition to 400 cuts in AstraZeneca's U.S. commercial business laid out in October.

"These changes are driven by the need to effectively compete in a challenging environment," said spokesman Tony Jewell.

The maker of the cholesterol fighter Crestor and the antipsychotic Seroquel in January 2010 said it would cut 10,400 jobs worldwide through 2014. That plan would cost AstraZeneca about $2 billion but generate annual savings of about $1.9 billion. That restructuring was an extension of a cost-cutting program launched in 2007, which had saved the company $1.6 billion annually by the end of 2009.

Several key products, including as child asthma medication Pulmicort and breast cancer treatment Arimidex, lost patent protection in 2010. And two generic versions of Lipitor, a heart drug rival to Crestor, hit the U.S. market this month. Lipitor is made by Pfizer Inc.

AstraZeneca is expected to get generic competition in the U.S. to its top three drugs — Crestor, Seroquel and heartburn treatment Nexium — by 2016.

(Ver)

Ver también:

Humor...es lunes: AstraZéneca / Despidos "cardiosaludables..."

“Sexo en New York”?...no, en Astra Zeneca

Former AstraZeneca U.S. medical director for Seroquel Wayne MacFadden confessed his multiple sexual affairs, and his offer of drugs to one of the women he was sleeping with, to lawyers in December 2007.

The confessions include descriptions of sex in hotel rooms paid for by AZ, illicit distribution of Vicodin, and a kinky relationship in which one of his colleagues asked to be “punished” for looking at a study that had negative results for Seroquel.

…/…

Between 2002 and 2006, MacFadden said he had slept with two executives who worked for AZ or its research agencies. He offered Vicodin to one of them. He also attempted to get confidential information about Bristol-Myers Squibb’s FDA filing for a bipolar depression approval for rival drug Abilify, via a woman he was sleeping with.

Mas...