US justice department sues company for off-label promotion of antidepressants for children

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1222

Published 25 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1222
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1222

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US justice department sues company for off-label promotion of antidepressants for children

Janice Hopkins Tanne

¹ New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The United States Department of Justice filed a civil complaintlast month against Forest Laboratories in a district court inMassachusetts, alleging that the company violated the federalFalse Claims Act.

The department’s complaint says that the company marketedits antidepressants citalopram (marketed in the US as Celexa)and escitalopram oxalate (Lexapro) for use in children whenthe drugs were not approved for such use, that the company paidinducements to doctors to promote use of the drugs in children,that the company failed to disclose a study showing that Celexawas not effective in children, and that the government was defraudedof millions of dollars because federal health insurance programmessuch as Medicaid paid for prescriptions for the drugs that werenot covered by off-label paediatric use.

Under the statute, the justice department says, "the governmentcan recover treble damages and $5500 [£3800; ${euro}$ 4000] to$11 000 for each . . . [Full text of this article]