How Safe Are These Drugs?

The free market policy has proved to be the road to economic growth and prosperity. It is for this reason that most countries in the world have abandoned excessive government intervention in market activities. It has been proven time and time again, however, that preventing the market from going astray by governmental curbing of unlawful activity is a desirable safety valve.

For this reason, it is now acceptable in many capitalist countries that some government role is allowed in various matters. In some developing countries many would object to a government having any role at all in the market. This is unusual since even nations where capitalism was born do not favor extreme measures.

In the United States people these days are talking about the violations committed by pharmaceutical firms, especially Pfizer, in regard to the marketing of their products. Pfizer has developed and promoted a drug known as Neurontin for treating epilepsy and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. It has turned out that the drug has not obtained approval from the relevant authorities that license and supervise the use of such products. The case blew up when a former adviser working with the company filed a suit accusing Pfizer of violating the rules and luring doctors into prescribing its drugs. As a result, the company had to pay $420 million in fines and compensation.

A number of other pharmaceutical companies have had similar problems and have been forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and compensation. It was found that they marketed their products illegally before obtaining official approval. They even resorted to fabricating studies alleging approval from nonexistent experts.

Here in the Kingdom we may face the same problem and we would like to know how safe consumers are and what degree of protection they enjoy. At issue here is the widely publicized Viagra as well as other drugs manufactured by Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies.

We also want to hear from the relevant authorities whether Neurontin is being marketed in the Kingdom for the treatment of epilepsy, and whether there is any possibility that patients who have used the drug should receive compensation as those in America did.