Suit accuses drug makers of aiding in deaths of children

A psychiatrist's federal whistleblower lawsuit alleges children have been harmed and even killed by the misuse of drugs he blames on aggressive marketing practices by some of the nation's largest drug manufacturers. Dr. Stefan P. Kruszewski claims that in July 2003 he was fired from a consulting job reviewing spending by the Pennsylvania state Department of Public Welfare because he reported "public corruption, including fraud and other violations of civil and criminal law constituting pervasive abuses."

The Harrisburg physician accuses the drug companies of distorting statistics, violating regulations and exaggerating the effect of their psychotropic products — practices he says have victimized juvenile wards of the state, mental patients and prisoners. "They have used their influence to promote the use of their products on innocent people devoid of evidence that the use of their drugs would have any beneficial or positive effect ... and have not employed proper scientific or clinical study to support their recommendations," according to the suit.

Among the allegedly "corrupt practices" by drug companies described in the suit are overmedication of patients, fraudulent billing, abuses of Pennsylvania's involuntary commitment law and "mistreatment of children resulting in deaths in Pennsylvania, Texas and Oklahoma." The defendants are Public Welfare Secretary Estelle B. Richman and two of her subordinates; the King of Prussia-based company Kruszewski was working for, Columbus Medical Services LLC, and two Columbus executives; and drug makers Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly & Co. The drugs at issue include Paxil, Neurontin, Gortan, Seroquel, Topmax, Risperdal, Trileptal and Zyprexa.

The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg. The defendants or their spokesmen all either did not return phone messages or declined comment Tuesday.

Don Bailey, Kruszewski's lawyer, said patient confidentiality rules prevented giving specific examples of patients who have died as a result of the alleged practices, and none were cited in the lawsuit. The drug companies' liability, he said, stems from creating "a political environment where it is expected of supervisors of these state programs that they squelch or dismiss or discourage expressions about the abuses of these drugs. Large money, big money, big corporations, huge businesses are so overwhelming our political system that medical judgments and political judgments are being affected by who's paying money. And the weak and the powerless are who's being victimized by this thing," Bailey said.