Glaxo 'hid drug's link to suicides'

British drug firm Glaxo-SmithKline is being sued over claims it hid evidence that its leading antidepressant made children and teenagers suicidal.

New York's top prosecutor has filed fraud charges saying the company suppressed trials of the drug, known as Seroxat in Britain and Paxil in the US.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer claims the company kept secret from American doctors four studies that showed Seroxat was no more effective than a placebo.

His lawsuit also alleges that five studies carried out by the company between 1998 and 2002, showed an increase in suicidal tendencies in young patients in some trials.

An internal GSK document quoted in the lawsuit warns the firm will have to "effectively manage the dissemination of these data in order to minimise any potential negative impact."

A Panorama investigation found patients who stopped taking the drug felt dizzy and anxious. Doctors are banned from using Seroxat to treat children in Britain and are advised against it in the US.

A spokesman for GSK said the company had "acted responsibly" with its clinical studies, making the results known in medical journals.