Washington Post Claims Uproar Over Seroquel, Cites No Evidence

There was an odd article in yesterday's Washington Post concerning suppressed Seroquel studies. It appeared on A-1 and was authored by Shankar Vedantam, who usually does good work. But this time out, not so much.

First, the story is old news and contains little that hasn't been previously reported by myself, Bloomberg, the St. Petersburg Times and some other media outlets and blogs. Short story: Study 15 shows patients getting super fat on Seroquel; company knows it has problems with the drug; FDA approves the drug for schizophrenia in 1997; AstraZeneca never has study 15 published, but pushes into the public realm studies showing that the drug doesn't cause weight gain; later evidence shows that patients gain tons of weight and develop diabetes on the drug. That's it. Nothing new there, except that it's on A-1 of the Post.

Second, the paper gave the article the headline "A Silenced Drug Study Creates An Uproar." Nowhere in the article is there anyone quoted calling AZ's tactics outrageous or hinting at any uproar of any kind. In fact, aside from a teensy quote from Columbia University's Jeff Lieberman and quotes from AZ's Tony Jewell, no one is quoted in the article, which is just odd as hell for a longish front page story in a daily newspaper, especially one asserting an "uproar."

It makes you wonder if the author wasn't talking to some sources who claimed an uproar, but an editor hacked their quotes from the article, which would also be damn odd.