FDA & Prescription Drugs

• Fentora Deaths Prompt "Dear Doctor" Letters

  Scott Kappes | September 20, 2007 3:48 PM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  Cephalon, the makers of the powerful painkiller Fentora issued letters last week reinforcing prescription and dosage information. The so-called "Dear Doctor" letters were sent out in response to the news that four deaths had been linked to the extremely powerful painkilling lozenge. Cephalon could be in store for further labeling revisions in the near future if more cases of this sort are...

• More Claims of Adverse Chantix Reactions

  Scott Kappes | September 19, 2007 4:33 PM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  The stop smoking medication Chantix has been getting some unwanted attention recently in the media. Claims of Chantix causing some very strange and intense side effects have been surfacing quite a bit after the Labor Day shooting of Dallas musician Carter Albrecht. His girlfriend's neighbor tragically shot and killed Albrecht after he apparently tried to kick the door in of his house early Labor...

• Off-label Prescription of Fentora Linked to Deaths

  Scott Kappes | September 18, 2007 12:25 PM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  Last week Cephalon, the makers of the powerful painkiller Fentora issued warning letters to doctors about the risks of prescribing Fentora for off-label uses. The letters comes after four deaths were linked to off-label use of the drug. The labeled use for Fentora is to treat breakthrough pain patients with cancer who are already receiving and are tolerant of opioid therapy. This is where the...

• Pain Medication Tied to Four Deaths

  Scott Kappes | September 17, 2007 10:26 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  Four deaths this summer have been linked to the cancer pain medication Fentora. Cephalon Inc., the drug's maker, has sent letters to doctors warning of these deaths. Fentora is an extremely powerful and addictive opiate approved by the FDA to treat pain in cancer patients. Doctors, however, are prescribing the drug for "off-label" uses, like headaches and back pain. The company is accused of...

• The Risks of Gadolinium Based Contrast Agents

  Scott Kappes | September 12, 2007 2:49 PM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  A rare disease has been linked to gadolinium based contrast agents used to enhance MRI images. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) is a debilitating disease characterized by widespread tissue fibrosis. While it has not been definitively proven that gadolinium agents cause NSF it is estimated that 90-95 percent of NSF cases have received gadolinium agents within a couple of months prior to...

• Suicide Caused by Chantix?

  Scott Kappes | September 11, 2007 9:50 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  The recent shooting death of former Paul Simon keyboardist, Carter Albrecht, has raised some issues about the quit smoking aid Chantix. The bizarre circumstance and claims made by the people at the scene intrigued me so I have been looking for other related posts. It turns out that I am not the only person interested in this topic and that there are several claims that make me more suspicious...

• Chantix: "Wonder Drug" or "Trip in Wonderland"

  Scott Kappes | September 10, 2007 10:06 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  Last Monday morning at about four o'clock in the morning keyboardist, Carter Albrecht, was fatally shot and killed by his girlfriend's neighbor after apparently trying to kick in his door. Albrecht had gotten into a confrontation with his girlfriend in which he struck her in the face several times and hit her in the back after she had fallen down. She somehow locked him out of the house at which...

• No Class Action Suit in Vioxx Litigation

  Scott Kappes | September 07, 2007 10:40 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  Yesterday the New Jersey Supreme Court gave Vioxx maker, Merck a gift. The ruling decertified a class action suit that had been approved by two lower courts. The Court decided that class action was not the appropriate way to deal with the cases brought about on behalf of insurance companies that seek to recoup payments they made for the drug that was recalled in 2004.This is a huge victory for...

• FDA becomes more cautious to avoid defective drugs

  Scott Kappes | August 22, 2007 9:14 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  With the still very relevant recalls of FDA approved drugs, such as Vioxx, it seems that the administration will be employing a more rigorous approval plan for new medications. While an FDA spokesperson says there has been no systematic change in the process, there has been a noticeable decline in the approval rate of medications. The administration has approved only 61 percent of applications...

• Cardiac event risk in Vioxx user starts soon after use begins

  Christen Wiese | August 07, 2007 11:51 AM | 0 CommentsHouston, TX

  A study done by Dr. David Kerr of Britain's University of Oxford discovered that the increased risk of an adverse cardiac event happened sooner than originally thought for Vioxx users.The original conclusion from a past study conveyed that Vioxx posed a significant cardiovascular threat after 18 months of use. However, the new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2007...