Minnesotan files lawsuit over anti-depressant for children

Associated Press

Tue, Aug. 03, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - GlaxoSmithKline committed fraud and misrepresented data on the effectiveness of prescribing its anti-depressant Paxil to children, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges the London-based company suppressed clinical studies that indicated Paxil was ineffective for children, said Paul Dahlberg, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

"They created this false impression that it was effective," Dahlberg said Tuesday. "We're not alleging that Paxil harmed these children. We're alleging that they (GlaxoSmithKline) sold them something that wasn't what they said it was."

GlaxoSmithKline said it would contest the allegations.

"We disagree strongly with the allegations of wrongdoing in the lawsuit. Paxil has never been licensed for use in patients younger than 18 and we have never promoted it for that age group," said Mary Anne Rhyne, a company spokeswoman.

The suit was filed on behalf of Nancy Gerdts, of Hopkins, and her son, who is a minor, as well as other plaintiffs in Minnesota and Iowa, said Dahlberg. The attorneys are seeking class action status, hoping to get reimbursements for anyone who purchased Paxil for children from November 1998, when the clinical results were first made available to the company, to the present, Dahlberg said. Damages are unspecified.

In June, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued GlaxoSmithKline in New York State Supreme Court, alleging the company committed fraud by withholding negative information. That lawsuit is similar to the federal one in Minnesota, but also addresses the issue of whether antidepressants increase suicidal tendencies in children.

After that suit was filed, GlaxoSmithKline said it would post the results of all of its drug trials on the Web.