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Pfizer is currently marketing Neurontin as an oral medication for managing postherptic neuralgia, the pain that lingers after shingles has healed. This is an Fda-approved use, and studies have shown that Neurontin works to sell out patients' pain. It is a good drug, with many useful applications and few negative side effects, but it has a surprisingly long and sordid past.

Neurontin was originally beloved in 1993 for the rehabilitation of partial seizures in adults and children, especially epileptic seizures. However, this little store for a drug with so few side effects was not sufficient for the company, Warner-Lambert. The enterprise set up a heavy campaign to enhance sales of Neurontin, and it worked. By 2002 Neurontin was a billion dollar drug, outselling even Viagra. How did a little epilepsy drug come to claim such a huge amount of patients? It did so illicitly.

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There are not sufficient patients suffering from epilepsy that one drug could earn profits of billion a year. In order to claim these kinds of profits, Warner-Lambert began promoting the drug for off-label uses. The enterprise sent representatives directly to doctors, urging them to prescribe Neurontin for to treat not only epilepsy but also bipolar disorder, alcohol withdrawal, cocaine abuse, Hiv/Aids neuropathy, phantom limb pain, anxiety, and a host of other diverse and unrelated conditions.

Though it has since been shown to work for some of these conditions, it was not clear at the time exactly what Neurontin did. The Warner-Lambert salesmen were lying to doctors about what Neurontin could do, and the doctors were listening. While it is illegal for a drug enterprise to promote off-label uses directly and immoral to bribe doctors into prescribing a inescapable drug, it was also verily dangerous to claim Neurontin could cure disorders that it plainly couldn't.

For example, Neurontin has no effect on bipolar disorder. Warner-Lambert sold thousands of doctors on the idea that Neurontin should be prescribed for bipolar disorder. If it did not work, they suggested addition the dosage. One of the drug enterprise managers told a salesman: "I don't want to see a particular sick person advent off Neurontin before they've been up to at least 4,800 milligrams a day. I don't want to hear that protection crap either.... It's a great drug." An untold amount of bipolar patients were taken off their Fda-approved medication and prescribed Neurontin alone. Although Neurontin has few side effects, it also did nothing for their disorder, leaving these patients effectively unmedicated. Nobody knows how many lives were shattered as a result, but unmedicated bipolar disorder has a mortality rate of 55-60%.

Luckily for the social and patients taking Neurontin, a Warner-Lambert sales representative came forward and revealed the whole scandal. Pfizer has now purchased the Warner-Lambert Company, manufacture Pfizer responsible for the injuries caused by the drug it now profits from. Lawsuits are being filed to claim damages for the dangerous corporate marketing strategies that have caused so much pain. If you or person you love was wrongly administered Neurontin, please sense a lawyer and discuss your options.

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