This in response to deaths and an inability to prosecute GlaxoSmithKline in relation to those deaths allegedly linked to the GSK drugs because there were no specific laws related to the alleged actions by the company to hide test results. Interesting how those laws work in the favor of such companies though it's good to see the UK cracking down. My only caution is that ethics have little to do with this industry so until you speak to the almighty bottom dollar profit, they may not listen.
GSK could not be prosecuted for concealing results which proved the antidepressant Seroxat caused children to become suicidal because the law only obliges companies to hand over safety data from trials when drugs are being licensed. That loophole will now be closed.
Woods said yesterday he could not rule out the possibility that other companies were sitting on unpublished data that could cause them commercial damage.
"I think there is a tension between marketing considerations and the ethical dimension of making health products," he said. "We have to look again at that. The pharmaceutical industry has to look again at that. You could even say there is a positive disincentive to explore the data as fully as it could be explored."
