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What is "neurontin"? Is it a migraine medication?

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About Neurontin®
Neurontin is the brand name for the drug gabapentin and is a widely prescribed anti-convulsant approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of epilepsy. Warner-Lambert Company (Warner) has manufactured and sold the brand name prescription drug Neurontin since its approval by the FDA on December 30, 1993 . Warner marketed Neurontin through its Parke-Davis division. Warner was acquired by Pfizer in June of 2000 and is presently a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

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In 2000, when Parke-Davis was acquired by Pfizer, Inc, the only FDA approved use for Neurontin was as an add-on treatment for epilepsy. This is a very limited market with little upward sales potential. According to the suit, Parke-Davis knew that pain management, psychiatric disorders, anxiety and depression, all off-label uses, were immense markets, which if tapped, could yield enormous profits from sales of Neurontin. The company decided that it would be faster and less expensive to avoid the FDA's drug approval process and promote Neurontin for unsubstantiated uses.Company officials developed a strategy that would allow Parke-Davis to avoid the costs of proving Neurontin's safety and effectiveness for these other uses, while allowing the company to enter the lucrative off-label markets. The company used a variety of manipulative and fraudulent tactics to build sales of the drug...

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• A "publication strategy" that allowed it to promote Neurontin by the massive distribution of articles written by technical writers hired by the company. These articles supposedly described the scientific evaluation of Neurontin for off-label uses. Parke-Davis paid honoraria to physicians for the use of their names on these articles, even though the physicians were not involved in preparing the articles.

• Holding "consultants'" meetings at which doctors were paid to hear - either from company employees or physician speakers hired by the company -- lengthy presentations relating to Neurontin, particularly regarding off-label usage. Parke-Davis also routinely tracked these "consultants'" Neurontin prescription writing practices after these meetings.

• Payment of kickbacks to physicians to hear off-label promotion of Neurontin at programs billed as Continuing Medical Education (CME) seminars. Every aspect of these conferences and seminars was designed and approved by Parke-Davis, despite requirements that these sorts of seminars be developed independent of the drug manufacturer.

• Outright payments, in the form of grants, to reward demonstrated physicians who actively prescribed Neurontin.

• The formation of a Speakers' Bureau, which paid physicians to give presentations advocating for the use of Neurontin.As a result of this broad-ranging marketing scheme, sales of Neurontin in 2000 were 1.3 billion, and they grew to $1.7 billion; nearly 80% of these sales were for off-label use.The consumer organizations that brought the suit are: California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), Congress of California Seniors and national, grassroots consumer organization, USAction. This case was filed under section 17200, et seq. of California 's unfair competition and false advertising statutes (Cal. Bus. Prof. Code §§ 17200-17208 and 17500-17572) which regulate the conduct of businesses and their transactions with consumers.Although the case was removed to federal court, PAL attorneys successfully remanded the case back to state court in California. On January 30, 2004 Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss the complaint. Plaintiffs filed the First Amended Complaint on March 19, 2004 in lieu of filing oppositions to Defendants’ pending motions. Defendants filed a new Motion to Dismiss in response to the First Amended Complaint on April 19, 2004.

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BTW, my wife is Japanese

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indecline,
my mother is japanese, but born and raised in hawaii. dad is haole (hungarian, portuguese, dutch, german) also b&r in hawaii. you'll have beautiful children! (sorry, couldn't resist that!)

as for all the obake, i grew up with that stuff. eerie scary. there's not the climactic build-up of western theater, it just jumps out and bites you! no warning. it turns the familiar to frightening, normal becomes nightmare.

i have a couple of vintage prs (paul reed smith) guitars, among other things, picked up my first electric guitar when i got my very first paycheck 22 years ago so don't feel bad. and please don't say you're getting old. because i think i'm older than you, but i still feel like a teenager (except for my "old", aching back).

my [family member, the one i sent the ringu series to], probably knows yellow machinegun. she's all into anime and obscure japanese metal and groups, and everything. i'll have to ask her about it tonight.

take care, all. sorry for another of my long posts you had to endure.

angel

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"Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps."
Emo Philips.

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