Dr. Drew Responds to News He Was Paid by GlaxoSmithKline

One of the bits of information that came out of GlaxoSmithKline's $3 billion settlement with the government over drug marketing practices was that media personality Dr. Drew Pinsky took $275,000 from the company at the same time he was talking up its antidepressant Wellbutrin back in the 1990s, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Pinsky told listeners during his "Loveline" radio show the drug "may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal" like other antidepressants, the Journal said. The label on the drug made no such claim. "My comments were consistent with my clinical experience," Pinsky told the Journal. He acknowledged receiving payments from GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) predecessor Glaxo Wellcome for "a two-year initiative discussing intimacy and depression."

Part of the last week's settlement concerned "allegations that the company plied doctors with cash and lavish trips to resorts to get them to promote Glaxo drugs for uses beyond those specified in the drugs' FDA-approved prescribing labels," the report noted.

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