AstraZeneca settles Seroquel marketing charges
pharmafile | April 28, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Seroquel
AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $520 million to settle US federal investigations into the marketing of its antipsychotic blockbuster Seroquel.
The New York Times quotes two sources “close to the negotiations” and said the US Justice Department is to hold a news conference later today to give more details.
AstraZeneca declined to comment on the story, which also said the company would not face criminal charges but will sign an “integrity agreement” with the US government.
Seroquel, whose sales were worth $4.9 billion in 2009, was launched to treat schizophrenia and later bipolar disorder.
The crux of the cases against the drug maker is the allegation that it downplayed evidence that Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) increased the risk of obesity and diabetes.
There was a reference to weight gain in AstraZeneca’s marketing material but lawyers argued that it should have been more prominent.
Earlier this month a US Federal Appeal Court upheld a lower court decision to dismiss a civil case against Seroquel which was first heard in January last year.
The plaintiff had used an expert witness to prove her case but the court agreed with AZ that this witness and his testimony should be excluded from the case.
Although Seroquel is prescribed to millions of people worldwide, AZ still faces thousands more US lawsuits on behalf of patients who say the company did not adequately highlight the risks.
In January the ongoing US legal battle came under the microscope in BBC Radio 4’s File On 4 programme.
It interviewed AZ’s former UK medical manager John Blenkinsopp, who said that the company’s marketers had been desperate for a “differential advantage” over a competing product.
“They either wanted to say that there was no weight gain or that the weight gain was only for a short term,” he said.
But Blenkinsopp told the BBC: “The data pointed in the opposite direction.”
The manufacturer says the evidence available does not back up claims that Seroquel was responsible for any alleged injuries.
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