Atypical antipsychotics: too hard a sell?

Use of drugs such as Abilify, Seroquel and Zyprexa for treatment-resistant depression is gaining ground. Some see an 'unmet need' for medication. Others worry about side effects.

About a year ago, patients began trooping into the office of UCLA psychiatrist Andrew Leuchter, asking whether an antipsychotic drug called Abilify "might be right for them." Few appeared to be delusional, plagued by hallucinations or suffering fearsome mood swings. Mostly, they were depressed or anxious, and frustrated by the pace of their recovery.

Leuchter wondered what was up: Depressed patients didn't usually seek out drugs used to quell psychiatry's most disturbing symptoms.

What was up, he soon discovered, was spending on a new advertising campaign touting Abilify as an "add-on" treatment for depression. For the first time since the arrival of a new generation of antipsychotic medications -- six drugs called the "atypicals" because they work differently from the earlier generation of antipsychotic drugs -- the makers of one, Abilify, had been granted the legal right to market to a vast new population of patients beyond those with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

This week, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended that the agency should grant the makers of a second atypical antipsychotic drug -- Seroquel XR -- similar latitude. The drug giant AstraZeneca wants permission to market the drug as a treatment for depression or anxiety that has not yielded to antidepressants alone.


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Antipsychotics Aren't Anti-Depressants

I saw the Abilify for depression TV ad again over the weekend and I continue to be concerned about how Bristol-Myers Squibb is very craftily making the drug, an atypical antipsychotic, sound as if it's an anti-depressant. Nowhere in the TV is it mentioned that the drug is an antipsychotic, at least not in what I've caught on-air.

I've written about the ad previously here and have also written about how the drug's clinical trials for depression show a greater chance for a patient to experience akathisia than to have his or her depression improved.

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Drug firm, subsidiary settle suits for $515m - Pricing schemes, fraud alleged

Bristol-Myers Squibb and a subsidiary have agreed to pay more than $515 million to settle civil suits over fraudulent drug marketing and pricing schemes, including illegally promoting an anti-psychotic drug to children and the elderly, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said yesterday.

The settlement between the federal government and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Apothecon Inc. is the third-largest between a pharmaceutical company and the US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts, which has obtained more than $4 billion in healthcare fraud settlements since 2000 and acquired a national reputation for pursuing such cases.

As with many of the earlier settlements, the agreement came after several employees of the pharmaceutical giant turned whistleblowers and filed federal suits in Massachusetts, enticed in part by the track record of federal prosecutors here.

The agreement says Bristol-Myers Squibb gave kickbacks to physicians and healthcare providers from 2000 through mid-2003 to get them to prescribe the company's drugs. The kickbacks came in several forms, including consulting fees and trips to luxury resorts.

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Abilify helps as add-on depression treatment-study

Bristol-Myers Squibb's Abilify proved effective as an add-on therapy for patients suffering from major depression who were not getting satisfactory relief from their regular medication, according to a clinical study.

The drugmaker is hoping to use data from the study, which were presented on Monday at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Diego, to broaden the approved uses for Abilify, which is also approved to treat bipolar disorder.

READ MORE @ REUTERS