Posts Tagged ‘dangerous drug’

On June 18, 2009, a federal judge ruled that AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, cannot block testimony by a medical expert that its antipsychotic drug Seroquel is linked to weight gain and diabetes.  Seroquel is an oral medication used to control the symptoms associated with schizophrenia.  Seroquel is AstraZeneca’s second-best-selling drug with $4.45 billion in sales in 2008.

The expert witness, Donna Arnett, is a professor and chairwoman of the epidemiology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  Arnett asserts that Seroquel causes metabolic changes in its users, which can lead to diabetes and weight gain.  She also contends these metabolic changes occur throughout treatment with Seroquel.

AstraZeneca contended that Arnett’s testimony should be quashed, because she cherry-picked data favorable to her position.  However, the federal judge held that it would be up to a jury to decide whether her conclusions are credible or not.  This decision will affect the approximately 6000 cases pending against AstraZeneca in the federal court in Orlando, Florida.  More than 15,000 plaintiffs have sued AstraZeneca in state and federal courts, asserting that the company hid information about Seroquel potentially causing diabetes in its users.  The federal cases are combined in a multidistrict litigation before a federal judge.  The same judge dismissed two Seroquel lawsuits in January 2009, holding that the plaintiffs could not prove that Seroquel contributed to their development of diabetes.

In May 2009, AstraZeneca successfully obtained dismissal of the first Seroquel case in Delaware after the judge excluded expert testimony about the link between Seroquel and the onset of diabetes in the plaintiff.  AstraZeneca hoped that exclusion of Arnett’s testimony would produce favorable outcomes, but the federal judge denied its motion, sparking some hope in Seroquel victims.  If you or a loved one has been injured by Seroquel, you may have a Seroquel lawsuit and should contact a Seroquel lawyer.

On June 17, 2009, the FDA reported the conclusions of its studies on Maxipime, an antibiotic generically known as cefepime.  Maxipime is a Bristol Meyers Squibb drug used to treat infections caused by abdominal surgery and other conditions. A recent published study suggested that patients given the drug might be more likely to suffer deadly complications compared to patients treated with other drugs.  The FDA determined that Maxipime did not increase the rate of death in its users.  The FDA reviewed the study’s data and conducted additional analyses based on additional data, including data provided by Bristol Meyers Squibb.

In a letter it sent to healthcare professionals, the FDA stated that it still approved Maxipime as an appropriate treatment for its approved indications, at least for now.  However, the FDA will continue to investigate into the safety of Maxipime.  As part of its ongoing investigation, both the FDA and Bristol Meyers Squibb are conducting separate studies on Maxipime’s potential link to increased death rates in its users.  The results of these studies will be reported in approximately a year.

Currently, the FDA has not indicated that Maxipime is a dangerous drug, but perhaps as it continues to do further investigations into the drug, it will find contrary information.  If you or loved one has been harmed by a dangerous drug, contact a dangerous drug lawyer today.

Many studies are done on the side effects of drugs before they are released to the market to properly inform patients of the potential side effects.  However, these studies often do not incorporate studies on drug-drug interactions, which are the effect of using a particular medication in combination with several other drugs that a patient is already taking.  Not only can these medications cause their own side effects, they can have additional and sometimes irregular side effects when taken with other drugs.

In the United Kingdom, fifteen percent of its residents over 75 years of age take five or more drugs on a daily basis.  People in nursing homes take an average of six to eight medicines a day.  In the United States, forty percent of people over the age of 65 take five or more drugs on a daily basis.  The number of drugs prescribed to people is on a rise, especially in western European countries.  While the reasons for prescribing more drugs are done to effectively treat older people, there are sometimes other less respectable reasons, such as more drug marketing by drug companies disguised as “disease awareness” campaigns.  Often, drugs are not needed to treat these “diseases” and prescriptions written for these purpose are unnecessary and can even lead to dangerous interactions with other necessary drugs patients are taking.

Various studies show that about five percent of hospital admissions in Europe and the U.S. are due to adverse reactions caused by two or more drugs patients are taking.  In addition, five to ten percent of hospital patients have additional drug reactions when being hospitalized, resulting in prolonged stays and inevitably higher hospital bills.  Another unfortunate reality is that even with drugs that do not have any drug-drug interactions, the patient might stop taking a drug without informing the doctor, because all of the drugs they are taking have cumulative side effects that the patient wants to avoid.  Doctors may prescribe even higher and often unnecessary doses because they think the lower doses are not working.  In addition, doctors themselves are often not aware of the cumulative side effects that patients can have by taking multiple drugs, causing the patients to suffer any unnecessary side effects.

In short, some patient advocates argue that compliance with prescribed doses is a precursor to effective treatment but if you have adverse reactions or are concerned about them, consult your doctor or pharmacist.  If you are injured by a dangerous drug or think you are the victim of medical negligence, contact a medical malpractice lawyer.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/34019120-498b-11de-9e19-00144feabdc0.html