LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Neurontin

Pfizer pleads guilty, but drug sales continue to soar – (6-10-04)

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Pfizer pleads guilty, but drug sales continue to soar

Never forget that the pharmaceuticals are big business, and just like GM or Honeywell, they are out there to turn a profit for the shareholders. The fact that the illegal pushing of off label use of a drug that earns a guilty verdict of $240 million is effective at getting doctors to use Neurontin for conditions it DOESN’T EVEN HELP is just wrong.

bmj.com Lenzer 328 (7450): 1217

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BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ON CHOLESTEROL CONCENTRATIONS – (11-05-07)

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Continuous intake of polyphenolic compounds containing cocoa powder reduces LDL oxidative susceptibility and has beneficial effects on plasma HDL-cholesterol concentrations

A major paradigm shift has occurred w/in the pharmaceutical company lately. For the past however many years, pharma companies have put out “blockbuster” drugs–high dollar drugs like Celebrex and Neurontin that, in reality, don’t add much new to the treatment possibilities. The development of these drugs is very expensive, but the payoff is vast. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bank.

The most recent of these drugs that was believed to be a blockbuster in CVD treatment was to raise HDL levels. The human trials were a dismal failure, leading some to speculate that the end of the blockbuster days were over. Can’t say I’d lose any sleep. One the far end of the scale from the blockbuster, high cost drug, in this study we find that good ‘ole fashioned cocoa powered raised HDL levels by 24%, all without killing a single study participant.

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DID YOU RECEIVE A SCRIPT FOR THIS MED? IF SO, YOUR DOCTOR WAS TRICKED

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I call them the “drug of the week.”  I’ve been in practice long enough to see patterns of patients that come into my office.  There are times when it seems like every other patient coming into my office is on a hot new drug.  Many times the condition they are put on the drug for is not really what the drug was originally approved for.

A pretty strong glaring example that I remember distinctly was Neurontin (gabapentin).  Within a period of a few months, I saw a surprising number of patients who were given this prescription, and none were for the indicated use of the drug (originally seizures, then post-herpetic neuralgia, which is when the boom started).  I remember a particular patient who was put on this by her PCP for sciatic pain.  Two problems…it wasn’t sciatic pain (it was meralgia paresthetica and responded well in a few visits), and, even if it was, this is a very poor use for Neurontin.

So, when the prescriptions go up, I am usually thinking it’s the drug reps doing a great job.  In the particular case of Neurontin, this is a vast understatement.  The entire marketing and study of Neurotonin beyond the approval of its use for post-herpetic neuralgia was a massive scam on a massive scale.  The company netted billions.

Here’s how it worked.  The was a study named the STEPS (Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect, Profile of Safety).  This study was what is referred to as a seeding trial (we saw this before on a very large scale with Vioxx and Celebrex).

In a seeding trial, the goal is NOT to gather information, but to get patients and providers used to prescribing the drug so it becomes habit.  The providers are frequently paid to participate in the trial, so there is incentive to start the habit.

The problem?  The drug company Pfizer cared little about the science of the study and how the drug may or may not have benefited patients.  They cared little about the side effects.  This trial was developed, in part, through the MARKETING department, not the research department.  This is an exceedingly unethical method of marketing a drug by masquerading it as science.

And the medical community was deceived as well and went for it hook, line and sinker.  This is just one of many documented examples that have come out as a result of lawsuits that put documents of drug companies into the public domain.

This just exemplifies why our society’s heavy reliance on drugs to fix our woes is so problematic.  The entire system is based on weak, questionable and, as in this case, unethical evidence. 

Lifestyle, however, is the way we were designed.  No one needs a study to determine that eating more fruits and vegetables are good for us.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/171/12/1100