JUDGE STAYS PAXIL AD RULING

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- A California judge is staying her order forcing drug maker GlaxoSmithKline to make changes in its TV advertising for the antidepressant Paxil following an appeal by the Food and Drug Administration.

U.S. District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer last week ordered the drug company to drop the claim from its ads that the drug was non-habit-forming by Sept. 1, but she has now agreed to hear the FDA's objection to the order.

Dependency and severe withdrawal
Her ruling found in

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favor of plantiffs in a class action lawsuit that charged the drug causes dependency and severe withdrawal symptoms.

The Department of Justice, acting for the FDA, last week said the ad claim had been approved by the FDA and warned that the judge's ruling threatened to lead to "50 different versions of labeling of advertisements."

GlaxoSmithKlein spends $65.1 million on Paxil advertising from Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann-Erickson Worldwide, New York.