News.com.au, by Renee Viellaris From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) April 03, 2011
Class action: Pensioner Alan Burrows and wife Gaye. Picture: Jeff Camden |
- Lawsuit claims medication linked to gambling
- Drugs designed to treat Parkinson's disease
- Claims addiction stopped when drugs did
TWENTY Queenslanders who claim they became gambling addicts after taking medication for Parkinson's disease are suing two pharmaceutical giants.
Heartbreaking cases of financial ruin and family breakdowns are at the centre of a class action representing more than 100 Australians.
For the first time, Aspen Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Australia have been legally served with proceedings claiming damages over allegations concerning their drugs Permax and Cabaser. The lawsuit alleges negligence, defective product and failure to warn.
Pensioners Alan Burrows and Alan Clayton both claim they started binge gambling on poker machines after they took Cabaser. Mr Burrows, 63, lost $300,000 while Mr Clayton, 76, lost up to $100,000.
The gambling allegedly ended when they stopped taking the drug.
Mr Burrows, who lives at Morayfield, north of Brisbane, with his wife Gaye, 64, alleges he began borrowing against the equity in his house, which was paid off, when he started taking a generic form of Cabaser. Over seven years his bank kept giving him more money and credit cards until the pair had to sell their house to pay off debt.
"I started doing something I'd never done before and go and gamble on pokies . . . almost every day," Mr Burrows said.
"Once I started I had to keep going (by withdrawing money every hour) until I couldn't get any more money.
"It was a compulsion to do it . . . you become really devious, disgusting."
Despite seeing psychologists to find out why he couldn't stop gambling, it was a media report in 2007 that identified potential problems with Cabaser that caused him to end his treatment.
It was then he tallied up his losses.
"I cried. I cried every night for months."
Mr Clayton's partner Ann Nichols, 73, claimed Cabaser changed their relationship. Mr Clayton was also taken off the drug after seeing reports.
"I found him gambling all his money and I couldn't understand why," Ms Nichols said. "I couldn't drag him away. You couldn't stop him."
Anne Shortall, who is representing the class action on behalf of Melbourne firm Arnold Thomas and Becker Lawyers, said the compulsive behaviour had been disastrous.
"The companies that have profited from the sale of the drugs should be held accountable," she said.
A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Association said product information for the drugs now warned that compulsive behaviour, including gambling and increased libido, was a potential side effect.
The drug companies refused to comment.
They have yet to file a defence to the allegations.
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