Acetaminophen Drug Linked to Liver Failure
July 6th, 2009 by Rick
Via MPP, we learn that on last Tuesday that a Food and Drug Administration panel voted on the fate of Acetaminophen, commonly found in Tylenol, Excedrin and other medication:
- 21-16 to lower the current maximum daily dose of nonprescription Acetaminophen.
- 24-13 to limit the maximum single dose of the drug to 650 milligrams.
- 1,000-milligram dose should only be available by prescription.
- 24-13 to keep the products on the market.
According to the FDA, Acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure, having sent around 56,000 people to the hospital every year. It is also linked to acute renal failure. Total sales of Acetaminophen drugs reached $2.6b, with 80% not having to be prescribed.
2008 Indicates Decrease in Pharmaceutical Use
May 19th, 2009 by Erin
For the first time in a decade, prescription drug use in the U.S. declined last year. Medco Health Solutions said that it was because more popular drugs became available without a prescription and few new drugs were released last year (not to mention certain safety issues that some medications faced.)
This isn’t to say that people weren’t buying drugs; total spending actually increased by 3.3 percent; people are just buying brand name products, despite their 8 percent price increase in 2008. Drug prices increase as the patent expiration date approaches, and after it does, generic versions hit the market for a fraction of the price.
Medco predicts an increase of about 4 to 7 percent in spending over the next couple of years; possibly due to the increase in prescriptions for kids age 19 and younger (due to the rising rate of diabetes and ADD cases.) Formerly prescription-only drugs, the biggest being Zyrtec and Miralax, changed to over-the-counter last year, reducing overall prescriptions.
As you may or may not have noticed, several drugs were substantially affected due to safety concerns. The FDA added new warning labels about heart problems to the diabetes-targeted Avandia, and sales of Aranesp, a drug used for treating anemia in chemotherapy patients. The sale of these particular products have rapidly declined ever since they were connected to the growth of tumors.
Product recalls also hurt the sales of some migraine, cold and cough medicines.
