Pfizer funded the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in order to turn the nonprofit into a “Trojan Horse” that would promote the antipsychotic drug Geodon for off-label use in children, according to a former pharmaceutical sales rep.
As newly approved drugs harm and even kill children, more parents are fighting back. The most dramatic moment for the 70 doctors and 200 spectators attending June FDA hearings about approving new psychiatric drugs for children came when two bereaved mothers approached the open mike.
“Pfizer targeted pediatrics and adolescents to expand off-label use and maintained on its payroll an army of more than 250 child psychiatrists nationwide. Pfizer regularly paid generous speaking fees to these child psychiatrists to give what were basically promotional lectures about the benefits of Geodon to their peers, who were naturally also child psychiatrists, despite the fact the drug is not FDA-approved or medically indicated to treat children at all.” According to (filing attorney), “the purpose and intent of paying so many child psychiatrists is clear — to gain a foothold within the fastest growing market for antipsychotics — children.”