POSTED: 11:45 a.m. EDT August 20, 2002
LOS ANGELES
-- A federal judge has told the makers of Paxil to stop running
TV ads that claim the antidepressant isn't habit-forming.
The ruling came in a federal court in
Los Angeles. The case is a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of
35 patients who said they suffered withdrawal symptoms.
The patients say they had symptoms such as nausea, fever and
"electric zaps" to their bodies when they quit taking Paxil.
The judge ruled the company's
commercials were "misleading" and created inaccurate expectations of
how easy it would be to quit taking the drug.
The judge noted that in other countries, labels warn of
adverse reactions when Paxil is discontinued.
Paxil maker GlaxoSmithKline plans to appeal the ruling, it
announced in a press release.
"We are very disappointed in the ruling. The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration -- and not the courts -- has the expertise and
responsibility for reviewing and regulating pharmaceutical ads,"
said David Stout, president of U.S. Pharmaceuticals at
GlaxoSmithKline. "The Paxil television ad was submitted for FDA
review prior to use, and the agency raised no objections to the
language at issue."
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Copyright 2002 by WRAL.com. The
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