In June 2010 Stewart Dolin visited his family doctor who wrote him a prescription for Paxil for "work-related anxiety and depression".
Dolin's prescription was dispensed but he received the generic form, manufactured by Mylan.
Six days after beginning his course of the generic Paxil, Dolin left his office shortly after having returned from lunch with a business associate. He walked to a nearby Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line station at Washington and Dearborn in downtown Chicago. As a northbound train approached the station, Mr. Dolin leaped in front of it to his death. Blood tests taken with Mr. Dolin’s autopsy were positive for paroxetine.
The complaint alleges that Dolin, "exhibited classic symptoms of akathisia immediately before his death. A nurse alleged to have been on the platform at the same time as Mr. Dolin noticed that Mr. Dolin was “very agitated, pacing back and forth and looking down the tracks.”
Last night Dolin's widow, Wendy, appeared on NBC TV in the US. The interview shows the lengths pharmaceutical companies, in this case Mylan and GlaxoSmithKline, go to protect the name of their brand.
The case, in a nutshell, sees Glaxo argue that Dolin took the generic form of Paxil manufactured by Mylan therefore they were not responsible for the side effects [suicide] The warning on the labelling was insufficient as it did not contain the risk of increased suicidality for adults over the age of 24. Mylan have argued that the product information was written by Glaxo therefore they are not responsible.
Classy huh?
Here's the interview with Wendy.
Bob Fiddaman
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