Pharmaceuticals firms mislead public

Pharmaceuticals companies in Europe do not always publish the results of tests on drugs before approval, misleading consumers and authorities, experts say.

In an article published in the British Medical Journal, experts urged pharmaceuticals companies to publish all data pertaining to a new drug, not just the positive findings.

An example the team provides is the antidepressant Reboxetine. They explain that various publications failed to show the effects of the drug completely even though Pfizer claims its drug to be effective.

Reboxetine is used in various European countries but it has been rejected by the US drug regulators -- a decision which questioned its effectiveness.

Another pharmaceuticals company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), was also criticized for failing to inform on the possibilities of suicidal behavior linked with antidepressant Seroxat.

GSK dismissed claims that it had inappropriately withheld trial information.

The company had faced similar criticisms after it allegedly did not publish the negative information on its diabetes drug, Avandia.

Now researchers from the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care have carried out independent assessment of Reboxetine.

They have looked at the outcome of 13 trial tests and found that the drug was not better than a placebo in regards to remission and response rates. It was also found that Reboxetine was inferior to other comparable antidepressants.

A higher number of patients had side effects with Pfizer's drug than the placebo and many stopped taking the drug because of its side effects, the researchers said.

Experts believe there has been a publication bias which overestimates the benefit of Reboxetine and many other drugs, state-funded BBC reported.

"Our findings underline the urgent need for mandatory publication of trial data," the experts said, warning that the lack of all data means policy makers are unable to make educated decisions.

A spokeswoman for Pfizer said, "This medicine presents an effective treatment option to clinicians for the use in patients suffering from these conditions.”