It seems that GlaxoSmithKline will never acknowledge that Seroxat has addictive qualities in some patients - my guess is that they know that it does but to admit it would be corporate disaster and would open the floodgates to them being sued by the thousands of patients who have suffered horrendous addiction problems with their 'miracle pill'.
Some of the comments by GlaxoSmithKline employees over the years just add fuel to the fire for those suffering addiction and a GP is more likely to believe a GSK sales rep who has just wined and dined him/her or given him/her gifts than he/she is to believe a patient complaining of symptoms that they normally would hear from a Heroin user.
So if GlaxoSmithKline won't... or can't do anything about it then I think it's high time campaigners such as myself did.
Will the MHRA help?
Up until the investigation 'result' I would have said no. But I am of the opinion that the MHRA are so pissed off with GlaxoSmithKline for making them look incompetent that the possibility of acknowledging and tackling this addiction problem may well be feasible. Am I living a false hope?
I am not the biggest fan of the MHRA, they would be the first to acknowledge that the 'Fiddaman' guy has been writing on his blog again, slagging us off. If it makes them aware then I have achieved something. I know GlaxoSmithKline pay regular visits to this little old blog , as have Ofsted and a whole bunch of vastly overpaid lawyers.
It is easy to turn the other cheek and ignore critics slamming you - GlaxoSmithKline are used to it and to an extent so are the MHRA but there has been a change, at least with the MHRA. They recently had a meeting with Seroxat campaigners regarding the four year investigation into GlaxoSmithKline and their liaising skills are getting better. Far be it for me to 'big-up' the MHRA, they have a huge mountain to climb before they regain any confidence from me and no Mori -Poll will make me think that they have reached the point where they have my utmost respect.
I do, however, believe that the tide is turning for the second biggest Pharmaceutical Company in the world. For too long they have had things their way. One only has to look at people blogging about them. This corporate company is slowly but surely being pinned down. They or their fat cat lawyers may read this and smirk, they may feel they are untouchable but there is a new breed of bloggers out in the blogsphere these days - these people, like me, are pissed off and they are not afraid to say so.
So back to the point, which is pretty much the title of this rant, 'Clearing up the mess for GlaxoSmithKline'.
There are people in the UK that are suffering with withdrawal/addiction problems with Seroxat. If this were not true I would be served some sort of threatening letter by GlaxoSmithKline's lawyers to ask me to retract that statement. For a sufferer to watch a Glaxo employee play down risks on Panorama or to read the words of a Glaxo employee playing down the withdrawal effects is quite torturous.
I want the following:
- Acknowledgement that there is an addiction problem with Seroxat
- Special clinics to be set up to help those suffering with addiction
- GlaxoSmithKline to pay for the up keep of these clinics
- The clinics to be manned by people that know about the horrors of withdrawal
- A withdrawal program to be written and verified by former Seroxat sufferers
This may seem like some sort of patient Utopia but it is something that needs to be done and it need to be done RIGHT NOW!
So, there you have it. I may not get what I want, but at least GlaxoSmithKline and their lawyers know exactly what it is I want now.
This would cut out patients having to go through the courts only to be given a paltry payment and then a gagging order for all the shit they have had to endure at the hands of, what I deem, a defective drug.
Ball is in their court
Fid
Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal
By Bob Fiddaman
ISBN: 978-1-84991-120-7
CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE
PAPERBACK COMING SOON
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