Toronto, Ontario — September 26, 2013 – RxISK.org, the first free, independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added to its drug safety database more than 320,000 adverse drug events reported to Health Canada from 1965 to March 31, 2013. The RxISK database now has more than 4.8 million reports of suspected adverse drug events — as … [Read more...] about RxISK adds 320,172 Health Canada reports of adverse events to its drug safety database
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Shooters on Prescription Drugs
The news from Washington this week (September 17 - See Scientific American) of another shooting where the shooter has been on psychotropic medication - this time trazodone - raises once again questions about the interaction between violence and medication. The data points absolutely convincingly to the fact that the drugs can and do cause violence. Some of the data is laid … [Read more...] about Shooters on Prescription Drugs
RxISK drug safety petition asks AbbVie and InterMune to stop blocking access to drug clinical trial data
Toronto, Ontario — September 13, 2013 – RxISK.org, the first free, independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has launched a drug safety petition asking two pharmaceutical giants to stop blocking the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from releasing prescription drug clinical trial data. In 2010, the EMA began releasing patient-level data … [Read more...] about RxISK drug safety petition asks AbbVie and InterMune to stop blocking access to drug clinical trial data
Letter to Stacy London
Five weeks ago Johanna Ryan and Kim Witczak wrote a letter to Stacy London. It covered Stacy's role in AbbVie's Humiraverse. It wasn't a critical letter. People in Humiraverses can't throw stones - the company will always win. Stacy is probably better placed than anyone to make a difference to AbbVie and Pharma's current campaign to close down access to clinical trial data … [Read more...] about Letter to Stacy London
AbbVie Petition: Drug Hazards are Not Trade Secrets
RxISK has started a petition on Change.org which will go to Richard Gonzalez CEO of AbbVie, and Daniel Welch CEO of InterMune, who are at present taking a legal action to block the European Medicines Agency's policy of open access to clinical trial data. The reason to petition is in this post Let's do the AbbVie again and the Petition is Here. Can you take 30 seconds to … [Read more...] about AbbVie Petition: Drug Hazards are Not Trade Secrets
Herding Women
Since 2005, Paroxetine, first marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Seroxat/Paxil, has carried warnings of birth defect risks. These risks led to litigation in the US – but not elsewhere. In the first case that went to court in the US in 2009, the Kilker case, the lawyers for Lyam Kilker argued that, even before Paxil was launched, there was good laboratory evidence that the … [Read more...] about Herding Women
The Pre-Pregnancy Dilemma Survey: Part 1
This is the first of two five minute surveys covering dilemmas that have been thrown up by the Panorama program on antidepressants, anticonvulsants and birth defects. The dilemma arises from the fact that women going on them are kept in the dark about a number of important issues. First, they aren't told that these drugs can cause significant dependence - that they can be … [Read more...] about The Pre-Pregnancy Dilemma Survey: Part 1
Mumsnet
Editorial Note: Two comments from Johanna and Neil in response to The Dark is for Mushrooms and Preventing Precaution. Johanna I didn’t see the BBC Panorama show (not available in the US) and don’t know if the outrage expressed by the Mumsnet blogger is sincere. It hardly sounds like Dr. Pilling was against using SSRI’s for any woman physically capable of getting pregnant. In … [Read more...] about Mumsnet
Preventing Precaution
Editorial Note: This post by Harriet Rosenberg aims at getting some debate going about medication and birth defects. We will run a survey early next week on this issue Right-to-Know (R2K). A recent post on RxISK, The dark is for mushrooms not for women features responses on Mumsnet to the issue of prescribing SSRIs during pregnancy. Johanna Ryan comments at the end of the … [Read more...] about Preventing Precaution
The Dark is for Mushrooms, Not for Women
The pre-pregnancy puzzle This post contains a comment by Neil Gorman on Humira in Ulcerative Colitis backed up by material criticising a BBC Panorama program on antidepressants in pregnancy retrieved from the link to Mumsnet mentioned by Neil. This link illustrates beautifully why Pharma has such an easy ride. There is a mythic element here. Where men are accused of seeing … [Read more...] about The Dark is for Mushrooms, Not for Women