Washington, DC: Critics say the tens of thousands of lawsuits filed against the drug giants have had little impact when it comes to dismantling the off-label drug marketing schemes and therefore, there needs to be an all out campaign of highly publicized lawsuits filed against the doctors serving as middle man pushers, one by one by one.
It is illegal for a drug company to promote a drug for uses not listed on the FDA-approved label for the simple reason that the drug maker has not successfully proven to the FDA that the drug is safe or effective for uses not listed on the label.
"However, because of a legal loophole wider than a barn door, doctors have the authority to prescribe a drug for an unapproved use if they believe a patient would benefit, which means all a drug maker has to do is find doctors willing to promote the off-label uses and deny the drug company's involvement in the scheme.
And recent studies on prescribing habits have shown that the drug companies have found thousands of doctors all across the US in every field of medicine more than willing to participate in drugging for profit schemes by writing prescriptions that result in fees paid for monthly office visits that require no more than a few minutes of the doctor's time.
Critics says the first round of lawsuits should be filed against the quacks involved in prescribing psychiatric drugs to millions of children who are now stigmatized for life by a label of mental illness and will face a life-time of discrimination in finding jobs and obtaining health insurance due to a trail of medical records showing a history of taking drugs used to treat the most severe mental illnesses of major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Critics point out that doctors in fields of medicine that have never before involved the diagnosing and treatment of mental illness would never have come up with the idea to prescribe psychiatric drugs off-label to children without the illegal prompting from the drug makers.
For example, on June 20, 2004, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that a review of Medicaid records in that state found doctors with specialties in dermatology, nutrition, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, allergy, radiology, plastic surgery, hematology, obstetrics, pathology, diabetes, rheumatology, and hand surgery wrote prescriptions for psychotropic drugs for children aged 12 and younger between September 2002 to September 2003.
In record numbers, children are being fed powerful psychiatric drugs, often in combination with each other, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants like Paxil, Cymbalta, Lexapro, Celexa, Prozac, and Zoloft and the new generation of "atypical" antipsychotics, such as
Zyprexa, Risperdal, Geodon, Seroquel, Clozaril, and Abilify.
Children are also receiving drugs for ADHD in record numbers including the stimulants Adderall, Dexedrine and Ritalin, often combined with drugs approved only to treat adults with epilepsy such as Depakote and Neurontin.
Experts say its not uncommon to see children on an SSRI, an antipsychotic, a stimulant drug, and a sleeping medication all at the same time. Neurologist, Dr Fred Baughman, author of, The ADHD Fraud, warns that multiple drugs are being prescribed together in combinations that are lacking of any scientific basis.
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/drugs-medical/off-label-drugs-01288.html#.VesjuJ3BzGc