Isiah Thomas Overdose Indicates Lunesta Has Chink in Armor
Until now, Sepracor’s Lunesta sleeping pill has enjoyed one advantage over Sanofi-Aventis’s Ambien CR: a superior reputation for safety. The drug is approved by the FDA for long-term use, unlike many of its rivals. And it’s not a benzodiazepine.
That reputation changed over the weekend as it emerged that Isiah Thomas, the most annoying basketball manager in the NBA, had allegedly taken an overdose of Lunesta and been rushed to hospital. He’s OK. Bizarrely, he denies overdosing and says it was daughter who took the pills.
Whatever. The FDA says that use of the pills can lead to bizarre behavior of which you have no memory; so let’s cut Thomas a break.
The problem for Sepracor is that this piece of bad news comes just as the drug’s sales have gone into a dip.
While the Thomas incident is not the cause of Lunesta’s misfortunes, the information that only 10 pills can be enough to send you to the ER cannot help matters.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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