FDA and Your Safety

Health Watch

I happen to be Diabetic, in case you haven’t checked out the Health Section here, so this little tid bit from ABC rather struck a nerve with me. To begin with, it is about a Drug you inject, from what I gather, to help control your diabetes. And I have to say, it makes me wonder at just what is the role of the FDA? Seriously, is it to protect the consumer, or is it to protect Corporate Interests?

Federal regulators are working on a stronger label for a widely used diabetes drug marketed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. after deaths were reported with the medication despite earlier government warnings. (source - ABC News)

So let me see if I have this right.

There were earlier concerns about the use of this medication, and the FDA wanted a warning label? Now if you read through the article, you will note that it talks about something called pancreatitis, which is hard to diagnose. Yet in releasing their warning today, they advise patients who are taking the drug, to STOP IMMEDIATELY, if they feel the symptoms come on. Like uh, I am supposed to know if it is this disease or not, as it isn’t clear cut. I mean vomiting, nausea, & tummy pain can be a lot of things.

Yet what gets me is this. If this drug was previously considered dangerous, why the hell is it still widely used? And if it is so widely used, what is the percentage of risk for people taking it, to develop this pancreatitis thing? PLUS why the hell aren’t the Doctors hollering? I mean I assume they are the one’s prescribing this medication, so is their insurance that good?

Brings into question a whole lot. I mean what other drugs are being passed onto the consumer, where there are serious health risks? I mean if you listen to the Drug Companies, they bitch and whine about how stringent the testing is to get a drug approved, but I have to wonder. Is it that the testing is stringent, or finding the right dollar amount to pass on that is so stringent? What is the going rate for approving a drug?

Not like this is the first instance of this either. I mean there was a whole stink a few months back on another drug being widely prescribed that had serious complications, yet the FDA sat on the internal memos for months. So who are they protecting?

You know what galls me about this entire story? It isn’t just that the FDA seems to have once more dropped the ball here, but that there is more worries about the Shares of the companies who produce this drug, than on the facts of the drug itself. Sure, space is limited, but come on, isn’t the purpose here to describe the problems, so we, the public, can be better informed? I mean too bad the company shares dropped, but tell me more about the symptoms, how to check if it is pancreatitis, because that might be a tad more important than what some jerk ass investor analyst thinks.

Ian @ August 19, 2008