Did you know that Canada is the latest country to bring the hammer down on the use of Raptiva after the psoriasis drug had been linked to 3 confirmed and one suspected case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)? PML is a neurological condition that can result in reduced brain function and ultimately, death...
Did you know that after possibly knowing for years, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is only know getting around to mandating a black box warning for Reglan side effects (Reglan tardive dyskinesia)? Metoclopramide side effects can be either temporary, or permanent. It can have life-altering effects on a patient's health and well-being...
The tragedy that is Trasylol and the scores of people who have died at the hands of the expensive anti-bleeding drug reads like the plot line of a bad movie. Only in this case, the villain doesn't get it in the end. At least, not yet. That payback may eventually be found in the courts of law as hundreds of lawsuits move forward...
The push to get what many believe is a dangerous product off the market got a helping hand on May 8, 2008 when a Public Citizen petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pull the Ortho-Evra contraceptive patch off the market. "Ortho-Evra is a poor choice for women," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the US-based consumer advocacy group, in statements appearing this morning in the New York Times...
She was just 18 when the Ortho Evra patch claimed her life. A student, studying for a career in fashion. After she collapsed in a Manhattan subway in April 2005 and subsequently died, an autopsy revealed that a blood clot had formed and moved into the young lady's lung. The medical examiner ruled that the clot emerged as a side effect of the Ortho Evra birth control patch the girl had been using...
If there is a lesson that could be taken from the Trasylol tragedy, it might be that drug makers who hide, avoid, or mistakenly withhold important safety data from public, or even medical consumption would face certain censure in some fashion as an inducement not to ever allow such an oversight to happen again...
Now that the mysterious substance found in tainted batches of heparin has been identified, attention now turns as to what role the counterfeit had to play in the suspected deaths of 19 patients potentially attributed to tainted heparin, and whether or not it was the heparin mimic that was the basis for as many as 700 adverse reaction reports...
Now that the mysterious substance found in tainted batches of heparin has been identified, attention now turns as to what role the counterfeit had to play in the suspected deaths of 19 patients potentially attributed to tainted heparin, and whether or not it was the heparin mimic that was the basis for as many as 700 adverse reaction reports...
Yet another high-profile drug is suddenly under the microscope after reports of suicidal behavior. Singulair, the popular allergy medication marketed by Pharma giant Merck and Co. and raking in sales of $4.3 billion last year, is being scrutinized after what is described as a handful of patient reports have come into the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
In what is fast becoming a never-ending story, a drug that showed no concern in clinical trials is suddenly under the microscope now that the drug is on the market and used by a wider number of Americans. This time it's HIV drugs Ziagen, and Videx, two drugs that have now been identified as posing a greater risk for heart attack than other HIV medications...
