AstraZeneca Seroquel Studies ‘Buried,’ Papers Show (Update3)

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.

“The larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data,” John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, told colleagues in the e-mail.

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Young People, Mental Illness and The Pharmaceutical Industry

"As a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, I have been following with great interest the recent media attention being paid to young people, mental illness and the pharmaceutical industry."

"This is a topic that has been of continuing concern to the medical and non-medical communities. It raises a variety of important questions regarding the relationships between patients, physicians and drug companies; there are a variety of factors that have yet to be addressed."

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