Settlement funds grants about drug marketing
A flood of CME activities and research is in the works.
By Myrle Croasdale, amednews staff. June 19, 2006.
Physicians and other health professionals can expect to see more continuing medical education and research activities aimed at improving prescribing practices thanks to $9.4 million in grants from a settlement with drugmaker Warner-Lambert, a division of Pfizer.
This spring, attorneys general from 50 states and the District of Columbia announced that the company would fund 24 projects at 23 institutions with grants ranging from $329,000 to $400,000 apiece.
Grantees' projects include developing a curriculum on safe pediatric prescribing, creating a course on sensible prescribing decisions during office visits and providing education aimed at reducing unnecessary use of heavily marketed medicines.
The grants are the result of a 2004 consumer protection settlement the attorneys general reached with Warner-Lambert that resolved allegations of deceptive "off-label" marketing of Neurontin, (gabapentin), which won Food and Drug Administration approval in 1994 as an add-on treatment for epilepsy. The drug also was promoted as effective for unapproved uses including migraines, bipolar disorder, and drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Parent company Pfizer pleaded guilty to illegal promotion of unapproved uses for the drug and paid a total of $430 million in fines.
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