ALEC Tort Reform and Drug Liablity

A mother’s use of antidepressants during pregnancy has been linked to several severe neural tube defects — defects of the brain and spinal cord. Every year, 1 in 4,859 babies in the United States is born with anencephaly.

Antidepressant use during pregnancy has also been linked to other serious birth defects, including respiratory distress, Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN) and heart problems.

Disclosure:  Kim Lambert is a partner with . The attorneys of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor, P.A.

Aside from that – this video is really important!!

Papantonio: Big Pharma Covers Up Antidepressant Dangers

Half of Americans from age one to one hundred take at least one prescription drug on a regular basis. 10% of the country is currently taking an antidepressant. Every time we turn on a TV or open a magazine, we're bombarded by advertisements telling us that we need to take their special, magic pill that will make our lives worth living. But what they don't tell us is that these medications can just as easily destroy our lives, and Mike Papantonio spoke with attorney Kim Lambert recently about some of the dangerous side effects that we're starting to see from the over-use of antidepressants.

  

And then you have this ALEC  reality:

A clip from April 2011 - a North Carolina TV station about the attempts of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and GSK – to eliminate consumer protections in the state of North Carolina.

This “model” legislation was also introduced in Wisconsin on the first day that Walker was in office, in Minnesota and various other states.

Please listen to it carefully - for the multiple mentions to GSK

Especially who was allowed to speak at the next day's tort reform committee meeting!!!!

"EIGHT MINUTES of presentation on the deadliest products liability bill in America."

Thanks to GSK and ALEC.

Based on what just happened to GSK

Based on their involvement in ALEC tort reform legislation

The major players in the antidepressant market are Wyeth, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Schering-Plough.

Except for Forest Labs (and we really don’t know for sure – cuase ALEC won’t release their member lists – ALL the others are ALEC members and GSK sits on the ALEC Board.

But don’t kid yourself – Forest Labs is definitely not squeaky clean.

In September 2010, Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories) agreed to pay more than US$313 million to resolve allegations of civil and criminal liability relating to felony obstruction of justice and the illegal distribution and promotion of pharmaceuticals, charges to which it plead guilty.[5] One of the pharmaceutical-related charges was a misdemeanor charge of illegally promoting the drugs Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved pediatric uses in treating depression.[6][7]

In closing - I guess I would prefer the video said:

"The bad news is that monetary penalties are not enough to stop rampant fraud... If we want to stop fraud, we need to recover America's stolen billions and we need to make sure that the ALEC key players lose their jobs, their bank accounts, and their freedom,"