Interesting TRUTH

The True Side of Side Effects of Popular Drugs

Added by viorel on Jun 10, 2009 | Visited by 3898 | Voted by 27 persons

On June 4, 2009 regulators from the United States presented a list of two dozens of drugs that are currently popular among general population, but which need to be reviewed at an early stage for possible safety problems. Some of these drugs include pill against insomnia and weight-loss pills. Previously some of the problems were disclosed, however, they will still need to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration.



Smoking Cessation Drugs







The organization said that it looks forward to analyze the new popular anti-smoking drug Chantix, developed by the company that brought to the world the well-known drug against erectile dysfunction, Viagra, Pfizer. The FDA believes that Chantix might be responsible for issues linked with accidental injury, vision impairment and a list of other problems.







Overactive Bladder Drugs



Another drug sold by Pfitzer that is to be reviewed is overactive bladder drug Detrol. FDA will analyze the reports regarding the drug\'s serious side effect - Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which represents a serious skin reaction.



Sleep Disorder Drugs







The Food and Drug Administration will check Nuvigil and Provigil, which are sleep disorder drugs developed by Cephalon Inc. The truth about these drugs is that both are believed to cause severe skin reactions. The company did not respond to the list presented by FDA, which identified serious skin reactions linked with the patients who were administered the drug in 2007 and currently the agency carries on with studying the matter.



Weight-loss Drugs







Among other drugs that pose risk to human health there\'s orlistat, a drug for those wishing to lose weight, sold by Roche Inc as the prescription drug. It is also sold by GlaxoSmithKline Plc as the over-the-counter drug called Alli. According to the Food and Drug Administration, it will estimate the liver toxicity reports linked to orlistat.



HIV Drugs







Sustiva, an HIV drug sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, was listed because of a report about an eye-related birth defect. According to FDA, in March 2009 it added the description of the Sustiva-related case to the prescribing instructions of the drug.



Contraceptive Drugs







Another drug under FDA\'s investigation is Yasmin, a contraceptive developed by Bayer AG. The drug was reported to cause pancreatitis.







What Do the Companies Say?



Roche Inc: The spokesman for Roche, Terry Hurley, expressed the company\'s opinion regarding the list presented by the FDA, which says that the available information \"does not suggest that [the weight-loss drug] orlistat is causally related\" to problems with liver. He mentioned that obesity itself can serve as a risk factor for liver problems.







GlaxoSmithKline Plc: Mary Anne Rhyne, who works as spokesman for the pharmaceutical company Glaxo, mentioned that \"no causal relationship ... has been established\" between the over-the-counter weight loss drug Alli and hepatitis, a liver disease.







Pfizer: The company\'s spokeswoman, Sally Beatty, also had something to comment on the list. She mentioned that the creator of the smoking cessation drug Chantix analyzes any reports of health issues and \"as with all our medicines, we work with the FDA to ensure our labeling reflects the latest safety information.\" In 2008 the FDA stated that it was paying more attention on Chantix after hundreds patients reported a number of accidents such as vision loss.



Bristol-Myers Squibb Co: The spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Cristi Barnett, outlined that the HIV drug Sustiva features a label that says that Sustiva should only be administered by pregnant women \"if the benefit to the patient justifies the potential risk to the fetus.\"







Bayer AG: The company\'s spokeswoman Rose Talarico said the listing \"was not prompted by any change in the existing safety profile\" of the contraceptive drug Yasmin and Bayer AG \"continues to work with the FDA to ensure that the most up-to-date and accurate safety information\" is featured in the drug\'s label.







It is worth mentioning that the Food and Drug Administration unveils a quarterly list of its drug reviews with the goal of making the public aware of the early studies of possible side effects that were reported. The agency informed that the problems it is about to address to the pubic represents safety issues and if they are present in the list it \"does not mean that FDA has identified a causal relationship\" with the drug.







The drug industry is making a lot of money on its products, some companies deciding it is better to make more money than to provide real cure to more people. With FDA it might be possible that pharmaceutical companies will revise their attitude towards real treatment of patients. On the other hand, it seems that whenever a certain problem is addressed it might not be completely solved or if it is eliminated a few more issues come into light, making it more difficult for specialist to identify the real side effects of certain drugs.