AstraZeneca buried unfavorable Seroquel data

According to Bloomberg: via Bob Fiddaman

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Unfavorable studies about the antipsychotic drug Seroquel were “buried” by AstraZeneca Plc, according to an internal e-mail unsealed as part of litigation over the medicine.

The drugmaker failed to publicize results of at least three clinical trials of Seroquel and engaged in “cherry picking” of data from one of those studies for use in a presentation, an AstraZeneca official said in a December 1999 e-mail unsealed yesterday under an agreement between the company and lawyers for patients. The company faces about 9,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to properly warn users that Seroquel can cause diabetes and other health problems. AstraZeneca fell 6.5 percent.

“The larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data,” John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, told colleagues in the e-mail. (emphasis mine)

The whole story is here.

I don't understand why Mr. John Tumas is concerned to face "the outside world" in other words, people who take the drug. They just have to keep acting the same way they have been doing. It's working pretty good until now.