OFT alleges that GSK breached competition law to delay rivals' generic copies of Seroxat

The OFT alleges that GSK breached competition law to delay rivals' generic copies of Seroxat, one of its most profitable drugs. See BBC News report. "GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been accused of market "abuse" by the consumer watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT alleges that the pharmaceutical giant paid rivals to delay the release their own versions of GSK's Seroxat treatment. Alpharma, Generics UK and Norton Healthcare all received money not to enter the market with their copies of Seroxat, it said."

 

We must not be surprised at GlaxoSmithKline being accused of nefarious activities. You can read here of several more breaches of the Law by GSK with regard to the antidepressant, Seroxat, and other pharmaceutical junk that GSK manufactures. Some further examples of its criminality can be found on this page.

Truthman speaks out against GlaxoSmithKline

Truthman speaks out here against nefarious practices by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug company. He writes about the illegal marketing of depression drug Wellbutrin as a weight-loss aid, and the tragedies caused by SSRI anti-depressants, including Prozac, Seroxat, Citalopram and Zyprexa, because of their grave side-effects. If you ever think of taking any of this pharmaceutical junk yourself, I urge you to ponder Truthman's words and the words of Dr David Healy, an expert on SSRI drugs, and think again. Improving your nutrition is far more likely to lessen depression than any pharmaceutical mind-altering drugs. Can you really trust GSK or other drug companies with the safety of your brain/mind when you read of their iniquitous behaviour? - Your brain is not infinitely elastic. Guard it from assault by psychotropic drugs.

Antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby

The Daily Mail reports that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is warning pregnant mothers that antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby. In particular they warn that there is an increased risk that babies will be born with a rare lung condition if the mother is taking SSRI antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Seroxat.

Doctors are supposed as far as possible to avoid prescribing drugs to pregnant mothers because pharmaceutical drugs are far, far more harmful/dangerous to unborn babies than they are to the mother herself. It is shameful that medics give so little heed to this precaution. In fact, prescription drugs are also more risky to pregnant women than to women who are not pregnant. - So it's a no no all round...

Coupled with all that, antidepressants don't work anyway! See Anti-depressants are no better than dummy pills

See also amitriptyline

advice for pregnant mothers

And see Sodium in foods.

Non-drug therapies for depression include:

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

SSRI antidepressants taken in early pregnancy linked to birth defects in the babies

The Guardian reports that there is a link between women taking certain anti-depressants in the early weeks of pregnancy and birth defects in a small proportion of the babies born to the women.

These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)

I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.

Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.

As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding salty food.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

Antidepressants in pregnancy 'increase risk of babies suffering heart problems'

Women who take common antidepressants - such as Prozac - early in their pregnancy can significantly increase their chances of having children with heart problems, according to a new study. Expectant mothers who took Prozac were four times as likely as other women to have a baby with a heart abnormality and those who took Seroxat were three times as likely.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Anti-depressant drug, Seroxat, may affect fertility, says study

Antidepressant drugs taken by tens of thousands of British men may damage sperm quality and harm fertility, researchers at the Cornell Medical Centre in New York have found. The doctors examined the effects of paroxetine (Seroxat) on men taking the drug over five weeks. Four weeks into the trial, tests revealed the men had sperm showing more than twice as much genetic damage as at the start of the study.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

More comment about the Seroxat scandal

From the latest newsletter of The Dr. Rath Health Foundation:

Big Pharma really makes me feel sick
FOR CLARITY'S sake, remind yourself that nobody at GlaxoSmithKline , Britain 's biggest pharmaceutical company (2006 revenues: $42.8 billion; income $10.135bn), is to face prosecution. The company insists that it did nothing wrong with regard to the anti-depressant drug Seroxat. The Medical and Healthcare Regulatory Agency believes, on the other hand, that the company withheld the full results of trials, particularly those suggesting that the medication could increase the chances of suicide among teenagers. The government is content, however, to "tighten" rules on information disclosure as they affect an industry that ranks, after oil, as Britain 's second biggest export earner.
Read article by Ian Bell in the Sunday Herald (UK)
Comment: Cynics might argue that the British government’s decision not to prosecute GlaxoSmithKline for withholding the full results of drug trials is a direct result of the fact that Jean-Pierre Garnier, GlaxoSmithKline ’s CEO, is a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Business Council…

More about the guilt of GSK re. Seroxat, and the guilt of the agencies, including the MHRA, that should have protected people from this dangerous drug

See http://truthman30.wordpress.com/ and http://seroxatsecrets.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/glaxo-fails-in-its-responsibility-to-patients-and-it-hid-seroxat-data-its-official/

Law on drugs tests to be tightened. - The drug companies have lots of lawyers. I'll believe it when it happens, not before.

Law on drugs tests to be tightened
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Drugs companies must reveal the results of clinical trials as soon as they uncover potential problems with their medicines, the Government has announced.

In a statement, Kent Woods, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has said it will "take immediate steps to ensure the law is strengthened, so that there can be no doubt as to companies' obligations to report safety issues."

The move comes after a four-year investigation into how GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) withheld the full results of their trials into the anti-depressant Seroxat on children.

The Government watchdog criticised the company, which is Europe's biggest drugs manufacturer, for not handing over the trial data earlier.

But it added that criminal charges could not be brought as robust legislation was not in place at the time.

Mr Woods said: "I remain concerned that GSK could and should have reported this information earlier than they did. All companies have a responsibility to patients and should report any adverse data signals to us as soon as they discover them.

"This investigation has revealed important weaknesses in the drug safety legislation in force at the time."

The trial data revealed that there was a higher risk of suicidal behaviour among children younger than 18 on Seroxat than those given a placebo.

The results also found that Seroxat was ineffective in dealing with depression in those under 18.

It was handed to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in May 2003, despite GSK having allegedly been aware of the results since 1998.

A month later, in June 2003, the MHRA announced that doctors must stop giving Seroxat to those under 18.

Miss Primarolo will say that GSK should have informed the MHRA earlier than it did, but that the drugs company will not face criminal charges.

The MHRA investigation found that the company could have told them earlier, but did not break the letter of the law by not doing so, as current legislation is not clear as to when a company should reveal the results of its clinical trials."

This is shocking! - I can't say that I've much respect for the MHRA. - It seems to have had mixed loyalties. There's been a lot of GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) cash associated with the bank balances of members of the MHRA.

If anybody is under the misapprehension that the MHRA - Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (An executive agency of the Department of Health) is doing a good job and is not overly influenced by or even in the pocket of the drug companies I invite you to read this page, the author of which has a particular interest in the drug, Seroxat - http://fiddaman.blogspot.com/2007_04_05_archive.html - Here is an extract from the page:

"I've looked through the pdf file for THE COMMITTEE ON SAFETY OF MEDICINES ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2004 and will show you all those members who have ties with Glaxosmithkline.

Remember, The Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) was 'apparently' an independent advisory committee that for 40 years advised the UK Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy and safety of medicines - In other words they offered advice to the MHRA. It was replaced on 30 October 2005 by the Commission on Human Medicines which combines the functions of both the former committee and the Medicines Commission

I've just gone through the declared Personal Interests to highlight the members whom had ties with Glaxosmithkline.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

MEMBER

Professor A Blenkinsopp - GSK Specific – Fees

Professor H Dargie - GlaxoSmithKline Consultancy

Dr M Donaghy - GSK Shares

Dr J C Forfar - GSK Shares

Dr R Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Prof D J Nutt - GSK Consultancy Psychotropics and 300 shares

Professor J F Smyth - GSK Consultancy

Professor Christopher Bucke - SKB Shares

Prof Nicholas Mitchison - GSK Shares

Dr Brian J Clark - GSK PHD student funding

Professor Robert Booy - GSK Consultancy

Professor S M Cobbe - GSK Research grant

Professor J E Compston - GSK Consultancy

Dr A Glasier - GSK Shares (£10,000)

Dr Andrew A Grace - GSK Consultancy

Dr P Hindmarsh - GSK Consultancy on growth, probably lapsed by now

Professor P D Home - GSK Consultancy

Dr R F A Logan - GSK Shares

Professor R MacSween - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor J O’D McGee - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor David R Matthews - GSK Honorarium for advice

Dr A Smyth - GSK Conference expenses

Professor A D Struthers - GSK Shares

Professor J C E - GSK Shares

Dr A Gerard Wilson - GSK Consultancy

Dr Rosemary Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Mr David P S Dickinson - GSK Fee paid work

Dr Charlotte C D Williamson - GSK Shares

Professor Anthony H Barnett - GSK Advisory work and lectures diabetes related products

Professor V Krishna K Chatterjee - GSK Consultancy on preclinical research with a Vanillord Receptor antagonist (Consultancy end of 2004)

Professor Albert - GSK Shares

An 'independent' advisory committee huh?"

Surely personnel working to protect the public from the harm that prescription drugs can and do cause, should be strictly forbidden from being paid consultants to drug companies and doing research and publicity for them and from being holders of drug company shares?

Prescribed drugs do far, far more harm than good. Their side-effects account for most of the serious avoidable illness in the parts of the world that have the misfortune to be users of Westernised medicine.

As well as giving information about salt, salt sensitivity and about obesity, my blog heavily criticises the drug companies and their drug-pushers - i.e. the medical profession.

My website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ is about the special harm that prescribed steroids. HRT, amitriptyline and some other drugs do. See in particular http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

My Mensa article is here: Obesity and the Salt Connection

My 'political' page is http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (Do, please, try to read the whole of the page.)

Anyone interested in anti-depressants would find this material very interesting indeed - The Antidepressant Web

Guard your health! - As far as you possibly can, steer clear of doctors and their dangerous drugs!

Anti-depressants work 'no better than dummy pills'

Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Researchers discovered the drugs, which cost the taxpayer almost £300 million a year, generally work no better than dummy pills, and said exercise and therapy should first be prescribed instead.

Only a small group of patients with extreme depression showed any beneficial effect, the team from the University of Hull reported.

Prof Irving Kirsch, the lead researcher, said: "In the best interests of patients it is time for a change of emphasis to non-drug treatments and reserve these drugs for very severely depressed patients."

In England 31 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants in 2006. More than half were for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI).

The study, published in the journal Public Library of Science: Medicine, looked at the results of 35 clinical trials in the US involving 5,000 patients taking SSRIs, including Prozac, Efexor and Seroxat. Prof Kirsch said patients taking the drugs did improve, but so did those on a placebo - showing most of the effect was psychological.

He added: "One of the problems with anti-depressants is the risk of side-effects, such as an increased potential for suicide. Given that risk, it is important to know there are alternatives that seem to do as well or nearly as well but without the side-effects.""

31 million antidepressant prescriptions in a year in England is ludicrous! - Dangerous drugs like this should be avoided. Doctors' prescribing freedom should be curbed.

Non-drug therapies for depression include

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Try a walk in the country instead of a pill to lift depression.

A walk in the country may beat depression - Telegraph

Extract:

"Country walks can significantly reduce depression and raise sufferers' self-esteem, according to research published today.

The first study into "ecotherapy" found that fresh air and exercise cut depression in more than 70 per cent of people.

A 30-minute walk in a country park also boosted self-esteem in nine out of 10 sufferers.

The dramatic findings raise questions about the wide use of anti-depressants, and have led to calls for "green therapy" to become mainstream practice.

Prescriptions for anti-depressants reached record levels last year. More than 31 million were written, an increase of six per cent on the year before, according to mental health charity Mind.

Demand for the group of anti-depressant drugs associated with an increased risk of suicide - called serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors - also rose by 10 per cent."

This certainly gets my vote...(o: - Vulnerable people need to be protected from the damaging side-effects of antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline and seroxat, especially as they are now so over-prescribed. It is also very helpful to reduce salt intake. - People who do so routinely report feeling very much better and having more energy and mental alertness.

I invite you to read http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html about amitriptyline and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/02/pharmaceutical-industry-condemned-by-dr.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-mhra-medicines-and-healthcare.html about Seroxat, about prescribing and about drug companies.

Is the MHRA- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - in the pocket of the drug companies? - Read this!

If anybody is under the misapprehension that the MHRA - Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (An executive agency of the Department of Health) is doing a good job and is not overly influenced by or even in the pocket of the drug companies I invite you to read this page, the author of which has a particular interest in the drug, Seroxat - http://fiddaman.blogspot.com/2007_04_05_archive.html - Here is an extract from the page:

"I've looked through the pdf file for THE COMMITTEE ON SAFETY OF MEDICINES ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2004 and will show you all those members who have ties with Glaxosmithkline.

Remember, The Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) was 'apparently' an independent advisory committee that for 40 years advised the UK Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy and safety of medicines - In other words they offered advice to the MHRA. It was replaced on 30 October 2005 by the Commission on Human Medicines which combines the functions of both the former committee and the Medicines Commission

I've just gone through the declared Personal Interests to highlight the members whom had ties with Glaxosmithkline.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

MEMBER

Professor A Blenkinsopp - GSK Specific – Fees

Professor H Dargie - GlaxoSmithKline Consultancy

Dr M Donaghy - GSK Shares

Dr J C Forfar - GSK Shares

Dr R Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Prof D J Nutt - GSK Consultancy Psychotropics and 300 shares

Professor J F Smyth - GSK Consultancy

Professor Christopher Bucke - SKB Shares

Prof Nicholas Mitchison - GSK Shares

Dr Brian J Clark - GSK PHD student funding

Professor Robert Booy - GSK Consultancy

Professor S M Cobbe - GSK Research grant

Professor J E Compston - GSK Consultancy

Dr A Glasier - GSK Shares (£10,000)

Dr Andrew A Grace - GSK Consultancy

Dr P Hindmarsh - GSK Consultancy on growth, probably lapsed by now

Professor P D Home - GSK Consultancy

Dr R F A Logan - GSK Shares

Professor R MacSween - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor J O’D McGee - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor David R Matthews - GSK Honorarium for advice

Dr A Smyth - GSK Conference expenses

Professor A D Struthers - GSK Shares

Professor J C E - GSK Shares

Dr A Gerard Wilson - GSK Consultancy

Dr Rosemary Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Mr David P S Dickinson - GSK Fee paid work

Dr Charlotte C D Williamson - GSK Shares

Professor Anthony H Barnett - GSK Advisory work and lectures diabetes related products

Professor V Krishna K Chatterjee - GSK Consultancy on preclinical research with a Vanillord Receptor antagonist (Consultancy end of 2004)

Professor Albert - GSK Shares

An 'independent' advisory committee huh?"

Surely personnel working to protect the public from the harm that prescription drugs can and do cause, should be strictly forbidden from being paid consultants to drug companies and doing research and publicity for them and from being holders of drug company shares?

Prescribed drugs do far, far more harm than good. Their side-effects account for most of the serious avoidable illness in the parts of the world that have the misfortune to be users of Westernised medicine.

As well as giving information about salt, salt sensitivity and about obesity, my blog heavily criticises the drug companies and their drug-pushers - i.e. the medical profession.

My website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ is about the special harm that prescribed steroids. HRT, amitriptyline and some other drugs do. See in particular http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

My Mensa article is here: Obesity and the Salt Connection

My 'political' page is http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (Do, please, try to read the whole of the page.)

Anyone interested in anti-depressants would find this material very interesting indeed - The Antidepressant Web

Guard your health! - As far as you possibly can, steer clear of doctors and their dangerous drugs!

Pharmaceutical industry condemned by Dr David Healy, the director of psychological medicine at the University of Cardiff

Pharmaceutical industry condemned by psychologist

Extract:

"The pharmaceutical industry has been criticised by a leading psychologist for misrepresenting the efficacy of the anti depression drug Seroxat.

Patients have been "betrayed" by the misrepresentation of the drug, said Dr David Healy, the director of psychological medicine at the University of Cardiff.

His comments came in the wake of a Panorama investigation that accused GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of hiding evidence that Seroxat had performed badly in clinical trials.

Dr Healy said: "We are in a situation now where people who are ill generally have been deeply betrayed by the whole process, deeply betrayed by the pharmaceutical companies and by all the experts that have been willing to actually lend their name to the process.""

See also BMJ editor hits out at pharmaceutical industry