For ten years AstraZeneca LEGALLY compensated Dr. Michael Reinstein, a Chicago psychiatrist, to promote Seroquel and claim that he has research that suggests it helps lose weight in addition to its anti-psychotic "benefits." There is real research that proves not only does the drug not promote weight-loss but causes weight gain and can lead to diabetes.
Reinstein became so valuable to AstraZeneca that despite worries from some that his "findings" were too good to be true, the chief sales executive wrote that they needed to tend to "his every query and satisfy any of his quirky behaviors." Reinstein was putting thousands of mentally ill residents in the Chicago area on Seroquel and traveling the country to give promotional speeches from his personal experiences.
It seems Reinstein forgot to mention the patients that were gaining weight and developing diabetes. Chanile Haynes went from 140 pounds to 300 pounds within two years of starting the drug. She said she had wondered why Reinstein, a man on the larger side, was not taking the medicine himself if it really helped to lose weight. Haynes developed diabetes as a result of her weight gain and is now on even more medication.
Reinstein has claimed that any money he received from drug companies has had no effect on his research! Really? Then why would he threaten at one point to switch his patients to a competitor's drug?
It is clear that AstraZeneca chose profit over safety and truth. Sadly, Dr. Reinstein still can not admit that his palms were greased, and he said what they wanted to hear.
