November 9th, 2009
A teratogenic agent is one that can cause birth defects. Glaxo ignored links between Paxil and birth defects for 20 years. Glaxo was told of the links that showed that Paxil was teratogenic but kept marketing it anyway.
With more than 600 cases filed in court alleging that Glaxo knew Paxil caused birth defects and that it hid those risks to pump up profits, Glaxo has a lot of explaining to do. Approved for U.S. use in 1992-without Glaxo revealing to the FDA that it could be dangerous to developing babies, the drug generated about $942 million (nearly a billion) in sales last year, 2.1 percent of Glaxo’s total sales.