Paxil-Talk.com
Important information about Paxil
Paxil Insurance Lawsuit Settled
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Glaxo has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought by insurance companies over the drug’s suicide risks.
The class action lawsuit alleged Glaxo withheld negative information about the safety and efficacy of Paxil for teenagers and children. The Paxil settlement announced yesterday involves 42,000 health plans that paid for a Paxil prescription for use by a minor between January 1998 and December 2004. The insurers can recover 40 percent of their actual costs of the drugs prescribed to children and adolescents diagnosed with a major depression, or 15 percent of the cost if the diagnosis was unknown.
The $40 million class action lawsuit settlement will reimburse health plans that paid for children and adolescents to receive Paxil. Paxil is not approved for use in children, but doctors are free to prescribe medications in anyway they see fit. Several studies have linked Paxil and similar antidepressants to suicide in teenagers. Last year, the FDA ordered Glaxo and the makers similar drugs to include a black box warning – the agency’s strongest safety notice – about their risks to children on the drugs’ labels
