Vioxx Disclosure Emphasizes Need for New Web Resource that Answers Questions About...

Vioxx Disclosure Emphasizes Need for New Web Resource that Answers Questions
About Anti-Epileptic Medication Use

Prescribing for Better Outcomes Offers Unbiased, Comprehensive Analysis of
Drug Research; Site Comes in Response to 2004 Pharmaceutical Suit Against
Warner-Lambert

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --- Physicians and
consumers who want fair and balanced information about the most appropriate
uses for prescription medications can now find it using a Web-based resource
that provides easily accessible, science-based research about drug uses free
from pharmaceutical industry influence.

Prescribing for Better Outcomes, a Web-based educational campaign
(http://prescribingforbetteroutcomes.org) designed to provide accurate
information about the uses of anti-epileptic drugs for the treatment of
bipolar disorder, grew out of a global effort to promote evidence-based
research and counter the practice of "off-label marketing," in which drug
companies promote uses of their medications that may not be supported by
science or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"All patients have unique needs. Sometimes, prescribing a drug for an
off-label use is the best option," said Dr. John Oldham, M.D., a psychiatrist
and Chief of Staff at The Menninger Clinic and the editor of the Journal of
Psychiatric Practice. "But when decisions about off-label prescribing are
influenced by explicit and deceptive marketing tactics, it lessens our ability
as medical professionals to find the best treatment for individual patients."

Prescribing for Better Outcomes (http://prescribingforbetteroutcomes.org) was
launched in direct response to a 2004 lawsuit brought by 50 state attorneys
general against pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer and its subsidiary,
Warner-Lambert. The drug company had been charged with using deceptive
marketing tactics to promote off-label sales of its anti-epileptic drug,
Neurontin, the brand name for gabapentin. The pervasiveness of
Warner-Lambert's off-label marketing techniques was found to increase the
likelihood that physicians would prescribe gabapentin for the treatment of
bipolar disorder, even though evidence-based research demonstrated that this
treatment was largely ineffective.

The Prescribing for Better Outcomes campaign is funded by a portion of the
settlement from that landmark case. In addition to the tools and information
available at PrescribingforBetterOutcomes.org, the program includes resources
for clinical practice and a forthcoming continuing medical education module.

"Deceptive, off-label marketing hurts the public and makes it harder for
physicians and other practitioners to give their patients appropriate medical
care because they're making decisions based on faulty information," said Tim
Carey, M.D., M.P.H., Director of The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services
Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Unfortunately,
experience indicates that the practice of off-label marketing extends beyond
gabapentin. We hope that Prescribing for Better Outcomes will help physicians
to become more aware of the sources and quality of information used to guide
patient care."

The Web-based resource PrescribingforBetterOutcomes.org was launched by The
Sheps Center. The site will help clinicians and consumers better understand
what the research actually shows regarding the efficacy of various
antiepileptic drugs, including gabapentin, by providing an unbiased
comprehensive analysis of the published research on this class of drugs. The
site will later be expanded to include information about other prescription
drugs.

"It is unrealistic to expect that medical professionals have time to carefully
dissect all of the published research on prescription medication," said Cathy
Melvin, Principal Investigator and Director of Child Health Services Research
at The Sheps Center. "With access to information that the Prescribing for
Better Outcomes program provides, medical professionals will be better
informed as they make decisions about patient treatment. The site will also
help the public better understand the drugs that have been prescribed to them
and allow for a mutually beneficial doctor-patient relationship."

SOURCE Prescribing for Better Outcomes

Laura Rodriguez for Prescribing for Better Outcomes, lrodriguez@vancomm.com,
+1-202-331-4323