Feds' HEAT team torches Astra-Zeneca with $520m fine

HEAT is the acronym for the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services’ Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action Team. And they turned up the heat on drugmaker Astra-Zeneca with a fine “to resolve allegations that AstraZeneca illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.”

Read the government news release.

Comments

Paul Scott posted on April 28, 2010 at 10:47 am

Seroquel earned A-Z $16.2 billion in the last five years alone, according to IMS health. This is surely due in part to having garnered new users for everything under the sun. I think the fine is an operating expense. Maybe your headline should be:
“Fed’s HEAT team fines A-Z 3% of Seroquel revenues over the last five years”
A drug designed for psychotic behavior — a rare condition — is among the top five most profitable drugs in the nation. Discuss.

Stephany posted on April 28, 2010 at 6:08 pm

Ahh, Seroquel the wonder drug that continues on for patent extension and profit for AstraZeneca, amidst the litigation. Re-marketed from an antipsychotic that is worthless for the “treatment” of Schizophrenia, then onto antidepressant, insomnia, public speaking fear, (stage fright),you name it–Seroquel will be and is being pushed as an all purpose drug, with a black box warning for diabetes and buried data proving AZ knew—the 45 million dollar whistleblower cash goes to an ex Pharma rep!
We live in a country that has lost it’s moral compass, and embraced corporate crime without questions.
When will the average citizen understand they are a marketing target, and this goes straight to the top of US government.

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