Author Anon

Although the word is not in yet for Avandia, does anyone else out there feel like “Here we go again”?  Another drug possibly being pulled due to severe adverse reactions.  Avandia has been used successfully for many people with diabetes, and although prior studies had shown protective effects for the heart, the latest shows opposite findings.  Which do we believe?  Vioxx helped many people with arthritis but others developed heart problems.  What about estrogen?  That was not pulled but there are warnings for its use.  Rezulin was pulled and if Avandia gets pulled, can Actos be far behind? 

Did the pharmaceutical companies do enough studies?  I cannot say but I’m sure many people have opinions about this.  There is always the debate about whether the pharmaceutical companies are out to make an exorbitant amount of money and bribe their way into getting drugs marketed before all the studies are in.  Its a shame to think that humans are being used as guinea pigs, but on the other hand, how can we ever get the answers?  Before drugs are on the market, research is done on humans.  Unfortunately, it is always a small population that are in the study.  When medicines are prescribed, whether it is a new medicine or an old one, we have to accept that we are still in a study, a live study that is ongoing.  When a significant number of adverse reactions occur, the drug companies have to reevaluate the potential dangers of the drugs.  No drug is perfect, no drug is without its risk.  We may hold pharmaceutical companies liable for a lot but without their contributions would we be better off?  Unfortunately, these companies do have a large profit margin; but are they not useful as well?

Filed under: Medical Dilemmas