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Lawsuit Questions How Drugs are Promoted, Prescribed
A regular feature of National Public Radio (NPR) called All Things Considered had a special report today on The Selling of Neurontin. A lawsuit initiated by a family in Minnesota describes that 'drugmakers spend billions each year trying to persuade doctors to prescribe their medicines. Parke-Davis, a division of Pfizer, is currently in federal court, charged with illegally promoting Neurontin for uses not approved by the FDA.'
Doctors are free to prescribe a drug for unapproved uses, but under FDA law, a company is not allowed to promote a prescription drug for a medical condition without first proving to the FDA that the drug works for that condition and is safe. Neurontin was approved for sale in the mid-1990s as a treatment for epileptic seizures. But a lawsuit by a former employee alleges that Parke-Davis has made most of its money off the drug by marketing it to doctors for unapproved uses, in an illegal practice known as "off-label marketing."
According to the report "Neurontin continues to be sold mostly for unapproved uses. By Pfizer's own admission, 80 percent of Neurontin's sales are for those uses." Surely the outcome of this litigation will have an impact on the rest of the industry.
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10:31:25 PM 
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