Patients with atrial fibrillation are at increased risk of stroke from blood clots. In order to manage that risk, doctors might use a blood thinner like Coumadin, which has been on the market for decades. Or they might use Pradaxa, which has just recently arrived on...
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Defective Drugs
Should patients with mild forms of asthma take Advair?
According to the FDA, the asthma drug Advair should be used for the shortest period of time possible, until asthma symptoms are under control, and then you should discontinue use. The reason, as John Fauber reports for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, is that the use...
About the FDA’s ‘Black Box’ Warning for Prescription Drugs
The black-box warning is that big, bold warning seen on the packaging or instruction sheet of drugs like the blood thinner Pradaxa (dabigatran) and the diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone), both of which are known to cause serious side effects in some patients. The Food...
Pradaxa Defective Drug Lawsuits Starting to Take off
According to the American Bar Association Journal, lawyers have filed exactly 131 cases against Boehringer Ingelheim, the global drug maker based in Germany, and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. These suits allege that Boehringer Ingelheim's...
FDA lists symptoms of warning signs when taking Pradaxa
In its report, the Food and Drug Administration advises not to stop taking Pradaxa without first consulting your health care provider, but it also alerts people to the fact the FDA is investigating "serious bleeding events" in patients who are taking the blood...
Dr. Sanjay Gupta Suggests Mistake of ‘Ignorance’ Contributes to Patient Deaths
Sanjay Gupta, writing an opinion piece in the New York Times, suggests reasons why so many medical mistakes are said to occur in the nation. Gupta cites an estimate of roughly 200,000 patient deaths from medical mistakes every year, which would make it one of the...
Patient Has Irreversible Brain Bleed After Taking Pradaxa
In Severe Cases, No Treatment to Reverse Bleeding Caused by the Blood Clot Drug Boehringer Ingelheim's drug Pradaxa has what appears to be a significant problem associated with it: bleeding. And this bleeding cannot be stopped in some cases. Given that doctors simply...
Sales Reps Will Make ‘Ungodly Sums,’ Say GlaxoSmithKline Drug Company Executives
Last week, we referenced drug company CEO Andrew Witty's statement that "mistakes were made" in regard to the way his company, GlaxoSmithKline, used to market its drugs. According to Witty, that's all in the past - the off-label promotion, the lack of responding to...
Glaxosmithkline Chief Says ‘Mistakes Were Made’
As Katie Thomas and Michael S. Schmidt report for the New York Times, GSK must pay $3 billion for criminal health care fraud related to illegal promotion of drugs (Paxil and Wellbutrin) and failure to report safety information about another drug (Avandia). Avandia...
Possibility of Blindness Caused by Taking Actos
Actos is an extremely popular drug used in the treatment of diabetes. But as Anahad O'Connor reports for the New York Times, the largest study of its kind regarding loss of vision indicates that both Actos and Avandia can cause retina swelling. In turn, retina...