AstraZeneca's U.S medical director for Seroquel, Dr. Wayne MacFadden, had sexual affairs with two different women doing research on Seroquel, a study investigator at London's Institute of Psychiatry and a Seroquel ghostwriter at the marketing firm, Parexel. According to court documents, MacFadden even joked about the conflicts of interest with one paramour.
Last year, the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica reported that Chicago psychiatrist Michael Reinstein, who wrote 41,000 prescriptions for Seroquel, received $500,000 from AstraZeneca. Meanwhile, a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune discredited influential studies by AstraZeneca-funded Charles Schulz, MD, chief of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota.
Seroquel was even promoted by the disgraced former chief of psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine, Charles Nemeroff, who was accused by congressional investigators of failing to report $1 million in pharmacological income -- in AstraZeneca-funded continuing medical education courses.
And until a Philadelphia Inquirer expose last year, Florida child psychiatrist Jorge Armenteros, a paid AstraZeneca speaker, was chairman of the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee responsible for recommending Seroquel approvals. Oops.
The trial of Vietnam veteran Ted Baker who claims Seroquel he was prescribed for PTSD caused diabetes which began last month in New Jersey, is one of 26,000 lawsuits AstraZeneca faces.
And last year, London-based AstraZeneca agreed to pay $520 million to settle suits pertaining to clinical trials and illegal Seroquel marketing.
Yet, instead of reconsidering a drug linked to deaths and tainted by at least eight corruption scandals in 13 years -- Seroquel was even givento a 4-year-old Massachusetts girl, Rebecca Riley, before her death -- the FDA continues to wave through new approved uses for Seroquel.
Seroquel (quetiapine) was first approved to treat schizophrenia in 1997. The FDA subsequently expanded its use, approving it for "acute manic episodes associated with Bipolar I Disorder" in 2004, "major depressive episodes associated with Bipolar Disorder" in 2006 and "maintenance treatment for Bipolar I Disorder" in 2009.
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