FDA and Big Pharma symbiosis

- Online Journal

08/08/2007 - They're just dropping like Chinese imports -- prescription drugs that turn out to be deadly after FDA approval.

Not just Vioxx -- recently found to cause kidney problems on top of the heart attacks for which it was pulled -- but its seven deadly sisters named by the FDA's Dr. David Graham before Congress in 2004: Crestor, Meridia, Serevent, Lotronex, Arava, Accutane and Bextra.

After a post-Vioxx damage control campaign -- "FDA has confidence in the safety and efficacy of Crestor," read AstraZeneca ads which the FDA pulled; it wasn't that confident -- the cholesterol drug Crestor was found in the heart journal Circulation to be eight times more likely to cause rhabdomyolysis, kidney failure or spillage of protein in the urine than other cholesterol drugs.

Thirty users of Meridia, Abbott Laboratories’ weight-loss drug, died of cardiovascular problems from 1997 to 2003 and 224 other experienced nonfatal strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular ailments according to FDA reports.

And Accutane manufacturer Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., goes to trial this October in Madison County, Illinois -- where the first Vioxx trial occurred -- to defend charges that its acne drug caused Jason Peipert's inflammatory bowel disease which ruined the young soccer star's career.

Then there's Sanofi-Aventis' notorious antibiotic Ketek -- blamed in the death of four and liver injury or failure of 37 since 2004 -- whose primary clinical trials doctor, Anne Kirkman Campbell, is in federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, for forging data for money. (Test subjects included her entire staff and members of her family.)

Another doctor upon whose clinical data Ketek was approved conducted trials while his medical license was on probation and was arrested for cocaine and gun possession soon after.

And the atypical anti-psychotics whose marketing was also "atypical" with 29 percent of AstraZeneca's Seroquel sales coming from off-label Alzheimer use though studies say it worsens the condition and Eli Lilly settling 29,000 lawsuits from inadequate warnings about Zyprexa's diabetes, weight gain and pancreas infection side effects.

Finally there's GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia prescribed for 1 million Americans for type 2 diabetes and now known to increase the risk of heart attack by 43 percent and cardiovascular death by 64 percent.

Avandia is more expensive and dangerous than older drugs and not more effective, said Dr. Graham to a joint panel of experts convened to consider the drug in July -- a charge he could also level against the other suspect drugs and Big Pharma itself.

But instead of pulling the drugs, the FDA just adds warnings and subtracts uses. (See antidepressants; HRT).

If you or a loved one have experienced liver damage, liver failure, or Stevens Johnson Syndrome as a result of Ketek side effects contact the Ketek attorneys of Ennis & Ennis today for a free confidential case evaluation. Our on staff nurse and attorneys are standing by to answer any questions you may have regarding Ketek side effects, a possible Ketek class action lawsuit, or any other type of Ketek litigation.