Following on from my previous posts regarding BBC TV's Panorama and their coverage of GlaxoSmithKline's Seroxat.
In 2007 they aired their 4th and final installment into the whole Seroxat scandal. 'The Secrets of the Drug Trials' focused on the infamous Paxil 329 study and showed how bosses at Glaxo knew about the suicide link with children and teenagers taking their blockbuster antidepressant - they knew yet still paid highly ranked psychiatrists to spread the word to colleagues that Seroxat was safe and effective for use in children and teenagers. Even more worrisome, GSK paid key opinion leaders huge amounts of money for writing about the benefits of Seroxat in children and teenagers, yet these same key opinion leaders didn't actually write the material - GSK hired an outside agency to ghostwrite the articles for the key opinion leaders. In essence, GSK just paid for leading psychiatrists in the field of pediatrics to add their name to the ghostwritten material and to make believe that it was their work.
The previous three Seroxat specials can be seen here, here and here.
Here's The Secrets of the Drug Trials (Starts 50 seconds in)
Bob Fiddaman.
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