Washington State Assistant AG Announces Investigation into Pfizer Division’s Marketing Practices

In a court filing this week, Washington state Assistant Attorney General David Waterbury said he is leading an investigation for 47 states and the District of Columbia into whether a division of Warner-Lambert, which is now owned by Pfizer, "made illegal payments to Medicaid providers" to prescribe the epilepsy drug Neurontin, the Boston Globe reports. In the affidavit filed in U.S District Court in Boston, Waterbury said he is seeking "extensive data" from state Medicaid programs over the last eight months. He is looking to examine the prescribing practices of physicians before and after their exposure to "specific marketing practices," the Globe reports. Waterbury's filing is part of a lawsuit being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston into whether Parke-Davis, a division of Warner-Lambert, illegally marketed Neurontin to Medicaid providers, leading to an "explosion in prescriptions for unapproved medical conditions" (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 10/18). The lawsuit, which claims that Parke-Davis' marketing practices cost state Medicaid programs tens of millions of dollars, also alleges that Parke-Davis paid doctors $350 or more for each day they allowed sales representatives to watch as they examined patients; paid doctors to sign their names to articles ghost-written for medical journals; paid physicians to enter patients in clinical trials; pressed doctors to prescribe higher doses than those approved by the FDA; and paid physicians to promote Neurontin to their colleagues (Petersen, New York Times, 5/15). The lawsuit also alleges that Parke-Davis used numerous marketing strategies to encourage doctors to prescribe Neurontin, which is approved by the FDA only as a combination therapy, for off-label uses such as treatment of pain and mental illnesses. It is illegal for a drug maker to promote a medication for off-label uses -- those not specifically approved by the FDA -- although doctors can independently prescribe drugs for such purposes (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 5/19). Pfizer spokesperson Andy McCormick did not comment on the investigation but noted that the charges against Parke-Davis were made several years ago, before Pfizer bought the company (Boston Globe, 10/18).