Acomplia, was hailed as a wonder drug for dieters when approved for sale in the UK in 2006 but the European Medicines Agency said last week that the benefits of Acomplia no longer outweigh its risks and the drug should be suspended throughout the continent.
Fair enough, reading the Adverse Drug Reactions [ADR's] on the MHRA website shows there have been a total number of 818 ADR reports and a total of 7 fatal ADR reports.
In 2003 Brstol Myers Squibb pulled its antidepressant medication Dutonin [Nefazodone] in Europe because of its link to 25 reports of liver failure and 18 deaths.
A look on the MHRA website shows Dutonin with a total of 1,097 ADR reports and a total of 11 fatal ADR reports.
Seroxat [Paroxetine] is still used for depression. Lets look at the figures and compare them to the above two drugs that are no longer available.
The MHRA website shows that there have been a total of 10,339 ADR reports for Seroxat and a total of 166 fatal ADR reports.
So who does the math here? Is it the EMEA or maybe the MHRA, could it even be GlaxoSmithKline?
Here we have a classic example of the benefit clearly NOT outweighing the risk and yet Seroxat slips through the system.
One has to bear in mind that the total number of reports [Yellow Cards] sent to the MHRA are not a true figure of the problems patients have when on these drugs, some circles suggest that the MHRA receive maybe 10% of actual ADR reports. If the 10% figure is true then Seroxat is more problematic than the MHRA would have you or I believe.
Based on the 10%, Seroxat would have had over 100,000 ADR reports. If that is benefit outweighing risk then I'm at a complete loss of what else to do. Even if the MHRA figures were true, why have two drugs, Acomplia and Dutonin, been pulled when they have less ADR reports [far less] than Seroxat?
In fact both Acomplia and Dutonin have less ADR reports than Efexor [Venlafaxine] another antidepressant with 5,064 ADR reports and a total of 145 fatal ADR reports!
145 fatal ADR reports for Efexor, 166 for Seroxat!
Something is drastically wrong here. It's akin to pulling Walkers Crisps from the market when in fact it is Golden Wonder Crisps that has the problem!
Vioxx [Rofecoxib] was even pulled with a total of 4,162 ADR reports and 112 fatal ADR reports.
This is not rocket science, it's basic mathematics but the people in charge of the sums are telling us that there is no SSRi problem and that the benefits far outweigh the risks.
They will be telling us next that 5+5 = 9
Fid
Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal
By Bob Fiddaman
ISBN: 978-1-84991-120-7
CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE
PAPERBACK COMING SOON
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