Alleged Improper Marketing Costs GlaxoSmithKline $105M

The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay 44 states and the District of Columbia a total of $105 million to resolve claims the company violated consumer protection laws by marketing drugs for off-label uses, according to the Department of Justice.

The lawsuit against GSK concerns its marketing and sale of Advair, an asthma drug, and antidepressant drugs Paxil and Wellbutrin.

Additionally, as part of the settlement, GSK is banned from the following:

• Making deceptive and misleading statements about its drugs

• Making promotional claims about its drugs not permitted by the FDA 

• Presenting favorable information concerning its drugs from flawed studies

• Providing samples of GSK drugs to healthcare providers who are not expected to prescribe the samples for an approved use

• Disseminating information describing any off-label use of a GSK product.

GSK is also prohibited from providing incentive payments to its salespeople and from using physicians the company has paid to promote its products.

"Patient care is undermined when pharmaceutical companies promote uses for drugs that have not been approved by the FDA or pay medical professionals to promote certain drugs," said California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris in a news release.

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