Paxil Investigation Broadens
The Wall Street Journal announced on June 20, 2008, that a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether GlaxoSmithKline PLC withheld information about the suicide risks of the antidepressant drug Paxil is widening. In its online editions, the newspaper said Glaxo confirmed that a previously disclosed Colorado-based investigation of its marketing practices also includes the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston and is being coordinated by the agency in Washington.
Federal investigators in Boston last year asked lawyers for families that are suing Glaxo for information, documents and depositions concerning Paxil’s potential link to suicidal behavior, and how the company portrayed that risk to doctors and the Food and Drug Administration.
Glaxo told the newspaper the company has responded to questions from the government and cooperated fully with the department.
On June 12, 2008, Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Food and Drug Administration to carefully scrutinize information it received from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline about the anxiety disorder drug Paxil, based on the contents of a newly available report about the drug’s risk for suicide among adults. Grassley also asked the FDA to review findings released earlier this year by the British drug-safety agency, which charged that the drug maker has known about suicide risk with pediatric use of Paxil since 1998.