Waxman Seeks Info on Drug Marketing

  

NEW YORK (AP) -March 5, 2007 -- Congressman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif. disclosed Monday that he sent letters last week to three drug makers and two medical device makers requesting information about their marketing.

Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent the letters as part of the Committee's ongoing oversight of the research and marketing practices of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

The drug makers which were sent the letters about their marketing practices are: Eli Lilly and Co. over its anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa; AstraZeneca PLC over it anti-psychotic drug Seroquel and Cephalon Inc. on Actiq, a narcotic lollipop and Fentora, a narcotic lozenge. Both Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson's Cordis Corp. received letters about the safety and off-label use of their respective drug-eluting stents.

Boston Scientific said it would provide information about its Taxus drug-coated heart stent to a government oversight committee. Johnson & Johnson's Cordis Corp. and AstraZeneca pledged to cooperate with the committee.

Eli Lilly and Frazer, Pa.-based Cephalon both confirmed receiving letters and each said it would cooperate.

In separate letters to Boston Scientific and Cordis, Waxman requested information about trials and others studies related to the stents after a Food and Drug Administration panel raised concerns about the safety of drug-coated stents in December.

Last September, Boston Scientific said it found a slightly higher risk of blood clotting in patients implanted with its newer drug-coated stents compared with older bare-metal versions. Taxus sales have fallen off since then.

Shares of Boston Scientific fell 48 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $15.51 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded between $14.43 and $23.96 over the past 52 weeks.

Johnson & Johnson shares fell 12 cents to close at $61.83 on the New York Stock Exchange, then rose 24 cents in aftermarket activity to $62.07.

Lilly shares slipped 14 cents to close at $51.63 on the NYSE while AstraZeneca's U.S. traded shares fell 31 cents to $53.53 on the same exchange. Cephalon shares sank $1.35 or nearly 2 percent to $67.56 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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