FROM: Psychiatric Times

Forest Laboratories recently set aside $170 million in anticipation of eventually settling a federal government complaint about the company’s marketing and promotional practices.

In a press statement (http://www.frx.com/news/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1278589), Forest said that it provided a pretax reserve in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 amounting to $0.45 per share, because of ongoing discussions with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) about its activities in connection with Lexapro (escitalopram), Celexa (citalopram), and Levothroid (levothyroxine).

The DOJ’s 34-page civil complaint charged that for more than half a decade, Forest illegally marketed citalopram and escitalopram for off-label use in pediatric patients, used “illegal” inducements to physicians to get them to prescribe the drugs, suppressed research, and caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs. (See Psychiatric Times, April 2009, or http://www.psychiatrictimes.com.)