Americans are getting used to the withdrawal or severe restriction of drugs "previously thought safe." From last year's Avandia warnings to the withdrawal of Vioxx, Bextra, Baycol, Meridia, Trovan and Fen Phen, "Pill Buyer Beware" seems to be a shrewd stance, especially when a drug is new.
Still, the parade of heart, liver and muscle complications seen with withdrawn drugs has lacked the side effect that sends shivers down the spines of consumers, regulators and drug-makers: birth defects.
But this month FDA issued a warning that pregnant women who take the antiepileptic drug Topamax are twenty times as likely to have their babies develop cleft lip and cleft palate as they would otherwise be, says Reuters. Children are three times as likely to develop the facial anomalies as infants exposed to other seizure drugs, adds the Associated Press.
Johnson & Johnson's Topamax is FDA-approved to treat seizures and migraine headache. But like the off-label marketed seizure drugs Neurontin and Lyrica (for which Pfizer paid massive fines), J & J agreed to a $6.1 million fine for illegally marketing Topamax for psychiatric conditions, less than a year ago.
And the marketing worked. Thanks to J & J's subsidiary Ortho-McNeil's "Doctor-for-a-Day" scheme in which it paid outside physicians to call on health care providers along with sales reps and speak at meetings and dinners, according to the AP, Topamax made J & J a cool $2 billion a year by 2006. (A lot less than the $6.1 million it paid in criminal fines for the marketing that made the $2 billion.)
Thanks to wide marketing, Topamax has become such a catch-all drug in the military for general pain conditions and other unapproved uses (often in untested psychoactive drug "cocktails" which are now under investigation) it's called "Stupamax" because of its brain-fogging properties says Army Times.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).