August 17, 2004

WE’RE STARTING WITH BUBBLEGUM-FLAVORED PROZAC

Firms 'must develop child-friendly drugs' (Tash Shifrin, The Guardian, August 17, 2004)

Drugs companies must focus more on the needs of children when developing new medicines, the health minister Lord Warner said today.

Launching a new paediatric medicines strategy, Lord Warner said he hoped it would send a "strong message" to pharmaceutical companies that they had a duty to research and develop medicines geared specifically to children's needs.

The move follows warnings from an expert working group of the government's committee on the safety of medicine (CSM) that a group of anti-depressant drugs known as SSRIs - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - which includes the best-selling Seroxat, should not be given to children. There was a risk that children taking the drugs might become suicidal and aggressive or suffer mood swings, the experts found. [...]

Lord Warner said: "Until now there hasn't been enough emphasis on developing medicines specifically for use in children, and the UK has led the way in pushing for change in this area.

"Work is in progress on a British National Formulary for children and we will provide funding for its publication and distribution as soon as it is ready. I want the new strategy that I have announced today to give a strong message to pharmaceutical companies to focus on the needs of children when developing new medicines.

And you just know somehow that they are not talking about antibiotics.

Posted by Peter Burnet at August 17, 2004 7:48 AM
Comments

SSRIs are powerful drugs. They are not something to give a child, unless the kid is seriously messed up -- and by that I mean something like a suicide attempt -- not teenage angst or sleeping all day. Otherwise you might as well hand them out like breath mints.

I wonder what the agenda is here.

Posted by: Gideon at August 17, 2004 9:11 AM

Childhood is a disease now?

Posted by: Roy Jacobsen at August 17, 2004 10:00 AM

I agree with Gideon. I think the agenda is just what he fears it is - a sort of EverHappy drug with which to placate the young ones. Can't have any disappointments in life, you know.

Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at August 17, 2004 10:12 AM

Think about it - these drugs may be given to children, but the real purpose is to gloss over the difficult moments of parenting (or perhaps just the mundane ones). The motivation is more to have compliant children than to have 'happy' ones.

Posted by: jim hamlen at August 17, 2004 11:38 AM

>Childhood is a disease now?

Why not? Pregnancy is. Though apparently childhood is treatable with chemicals instead of surgery.

>...a sort of EverHappy drug with which to
>placate the young ones...

SOMA! SOMA! SOMA!

Posted by: Ken at August 17, 2004 12:47 PM

"Flintstones chewable morphine"

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at August 17, 2004 2:02 PM
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