Panel Urges Limits on Use of a Heart Drug Natrecor

A panel of cardiologists delivered a setback to Johnson & Johnson, recommending that the company’s heart-failure therapy Natrecor not be given to outpatients and calling for a large clinical trial to determine its safety.

The panel, led by Dr. Eugene Braunwald of Harvard Medical School, said the intravenous therapy should be reserved for seriously ill patients arriving at hospitals. The committee warned in particular against regular serial outpatient infusions of the drug, a growing practice in heart-failure treatment clinics that have sprung up.

By STEPHANIE SAUL
New York Times
Published: June 15, 2005

Red meat ‘linked to cancer risk’

A major study has found fresh evidence of a link between red and processed meat and bowel cancer, scientists say.

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) looked at the dietary habits of over 500,000 people across Europe over 10 years.

BBC News
June 15, 2005

Lilly to Pay $690 Million in Drug Suits: Zyprexa

Eli Lilly & Company said last night that it had agreed to pay $690 million to settle about 8,000 lawsuits filed by people who claimed they developed diabetes and other diseases after taking Zyprexa, a medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that is Lilly’s biggest-selling drug.

By ALEX BERENSON
New York Times
Published: June 10, 2005

Dozens had died and more than 100 patients had suffered serious heart problems by March 1998 after taking Propulsid

Protect your grandchildren:

Documents from lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson show that the company did not conduct safety studies urged by federal regulators and their own consultants that could have revealed Propulsid’s danger early on. The F.D.A., moreover, did not disclose company research that cast doubt on Propulsid’s effectiveness against digestive disorders it was being used to treat, since the studies are considered trade secrets.

By GARDINER HARRIS and ERIC KOLI
Published: June 10, 2005
New York Times

Cranberry juice may fight viruses, study finds

Cranberry juice, which studies have shown may help disrupt bacterial infections of the urinary tract, may also work against gastrointestinal viruses, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Tests on animal viruses in lab dishes suggest the juice may help prevent viruses from infecting cells, the team at St. Francis College and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York found.

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Viagra Ingredient OK’d in Pulmonary Cases

The government has approved the key ingredient in the impotence pill Viagra as a treatment for hundreds of people left gasping by a rare but often fatal type of high blood pressure.

Maker Pfizer Inc. will sell the ingredient under a new name – Revatio – in the dose approved for pulmonary hypertension, the company announced Monday.

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4th Patient on Tysabri May Have Brain Infection

Shares of Biogen Idec and Elan fell yesterday on news that a fourth patient may have developed the life-threatening brain infection that prompted the companies to halt sales of their multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri earlier this year.

If the fourth case of the normally extremely rare infection is confirmed, it would make it more difficult for the drug to return to the market, doctors and analysts said. The new case might indicate the drug is more dangerous than previously thought because it appears the fourth patient might have taken the drug for a substantially shorter time than the other three.

By ANDREW POLLACK
New York Times
Published: June 3, 2005

Some Viagra users report blindness — Pfizer

U.S. health regulators on Friday said they have received more than 40 reports of a type of blindness in men taking impotence drugs, mostly involving Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has received about 38 reports of the rare condition among users of Viagra, four reports of blindness among users of Eli Lilly and Co.’s Cialis and one report of the condition in men talking Levitra, made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Reuters
via washingtonpost.com
Friday, May 27, 2005

Maker of Ventak Prizm 2 Model 1861 Kept Flaw From Doctors

A medical device maker, the Guidant Corporation, did not tell doctors or patients for three years that a unit implanted in an estimated 24,000 people that is designed to shock a faltering heart contains a flaw that has caused a small number of those units to short-circuit and malfunction.

By BARRY MEIER
New York Times
Published: May 24, 2005

In Trial, Drug Aids Vision of Elderly

A drug [Lucentis] developed by Genentech significantly improved the eyesight of people with a condition that is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, the company said yesterday.

The results represent the first time that a drug for the disease – age-related macular degeneration – has been able to improve vision, not just preserve it, in a large clinical trial. It thus represents a potentially big advance.

By ANDREW POLLACK
New York Times
Published: May 24, 2005

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