Drug Company with Lexington Location Included in NYT Story on Over Diagnosis of A.D.H.D

The New York Times posted a lengthy story on Sunday featuring doctors and public health experts claiming that attention deficit hyper disorder (A.D.H.D.) and a pharmaceutical company with a Lexington location figured prominently in the piece. 

According to the story, profits for the drug industry that provides medication for A.D.H.D. patients has were $9 billion in 2012 compared to $1.7 billion in 2002, according to the story "The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder." The story also states that 15 percent of high school aged children have been diagnosed with the disorder and that 3.5 million children are on medication in the United States, up from 600,000 in 1990. 

One of the issues raised in the story was the direct advertising to children, parents and teachers promoting various A.D.H.D. medications. Since 2000 the Food and Drug Administration has cited every major A.D.H.D. drug stimulated, including Adderall, Concerta and Focalin, for false and misleading advertising. 

One company cited in the story was Shire, a pharmaceutical company with a location at 300 Shire Way in Lexington. In February the company agreed to pay $57.5 million in fines to resolve allegations it used improper techniques to advertise and market drugs. One of the things the company did in the story was it created and distributed 50,000 copies of a comic book with superheroes to children that told them medications would help them pay attention and control their behavior. 

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