GlaxoWellcome's IBS drug Lotronex (alosetron hydrochloride) has been withdrawn from the US market after just nine months, following reports of five deaths among patients. In all, the Food and Dru ...
A drug for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which was linked to the deaths of at least five patients, within nine months of being licensed, may soon be back on the market.
Often, the short-term clinical trials, which also often involve only small numbers of ‘healthy’ patients don’t uncover the worst side-effects, which then only emerge when a drug is taken by the public at large.
Anyone out there who still believes that the system of drug safety regulation works and that the folks in the regulatory agencies have our best interests at heart ought to read the story of Lotron ...