söndag 22 december 2013

5 227 kg of Propoxyphene was prescribed on license in US during 2011


New data from INCB - The international Narcotic Control Board in Vienna – has been released. We are interested of the data from two countries namely USA and India. In spite of the banning there have been some prescriptions on Propoxyphene under license. It turned out to be 5 227 kg for the year 2011,  which can be considered a relatively high figure. It can also be said that the strongest resistance to the Propoxyphene was withdrawn would exist in the United States.

The prescriptions on Propoxyphene - written on the license - should decline significantly in the coming year - ie, 2012. The total prescription in the world was 142 430 kg.

Since US banned Propoxyphene in November 2010, India has became to largest consumer. In 2011 India consumed 92% of the world consumption of Propoxyphene. Even in 2012 India will have the highest consumption, but in the spring 2013 even India banned the drug.


From the year 2007 to 2011 the total consumption in the world was reduced from 285 865  kg to 142 430, around 50 %. We can estimate the world consumption the year 2012 to a few thousand kg.



Lots of lives has been saved in the US thanks to the banning on Propoxyphene, according to data from Florida.


During the five last years – from 2008 to 2012 – the numbers of occurrences by propoxyphene in Florida at the FDLE - Florida Department of Law Enforcement - have been reduced 17 times from 322 notes in 2008 occurrences to 19 notes - a reduction of 94% - during the five years.

It is well known that the substance Propoxyophene was banned in US on  November 19 th 2010 and in the year 2010 there were 224 occurrences of propoxyphene in the FDLE´s autopsy data.

In the year 2011 the notes was 32 occurrences and 2012 were there 19 - as mentioned. The last two years there was no legal sale from the substance, but apparently quite some people had saved some pills - as there still were fatalities

We can assume that the numbers of fatalities will be even lower thanks to the banning.

The reduction was 94%  as I have mentioned - which is a very large reduction, showing that hundreds of lives have been saved in the whole US from the years 2008 to 2012.

torsdag 19 december 2013

"Swedish Doctor Warned FDA of Darvon/Darvocet Side Effects in 1999"

update;

Years before the November 2010 FDA recall of the drug propoxyphene that led to the proliferation of Darvon and Darvocet lawsuits, a Swedish physician was warning of the dangers of propoxyphene products, calling them, “the worst drugs ever.” That same doctor also believes that Darvocet litigation could become bigger than Vioxx, the maker of which (Merck) paid $4.85 billion to settle the cases against it in 2008.
While the FDA may have only recently ordered the withdrawal of all products containing propoxyphene, controversy surrounding the painkiller dates back to the 1970s, when the group Public Citizen first petitioned the United States government to ban the drug. Ulf Jonasson, a Doctor of Public Health in Sweden, visited the U.S. in 2003 and 2004, meeting with doctors at Public Citizen, which issued a second petition for pro-poxyphene’s ban in 2006. Jonasson and his wife (Birgitta Jonasson, PhD) have been researching Darvon and Darvocet side effects since 1993. “We have researched Darvon side effects since 1993, and Public Citizen has worked hard to ban the drug before that,” said Jonasson. “There could have been hundreds of thousands of deaths due to Darvon and Darvocet over the past 50 years.”
Jonasson has published a number of reports about deaths caused by dextropropoxyphene (what the drug is referred to in Europe), and his efforts helped create new prescription regulations for the drug in Sweden in 2001. According to Jonasson, the new measures resulted in a decrease in dextropropoxyphene product sales by 66 percent, and a reduction in fatal dextropropoxyphene overdoses by 62 percent in Sweden during the following years.
Jonasson states that his research led to decisions by numerous countries to ban propoxyphene outright. “Our research was behind the decision in Sweden, the UK, and the European Union (EU) to stop using the drug but it took a lot longer in the US.”
Quite a bit longer, in fact. The EU announced a ban of propoxyphene nearly 1. 5 years prior to the FDA’s announcement, and the UK banned the drug in 2005. Public Citizen believes that had the FDA issued a recall at the same time the UK did, 1,000 to 2,000 U.S. lives could have been saved.
Jonasson says that, “Since 1999 we have informed the FDA about our research, and they know about our eight scientific articles about DXP and our two doctoral dissertations…” Explaining why the FDA may have waited so long to recall propoxyphene, he explains that, “We believe the FDA is influenced very much by the drug companies, and we know that Eli Lilly, the Darvon manufacturer (the original manufacturer; Darvon and Darvocet are currently manufactured by Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), has known about Darvon side effects for many years.”
Many plaintiffs have actually filed charges against both Xanodyne and Eli Lilly, alleging that the companies knew about Darvon and Darvocet’s severe, life-threatening side effects, but failed to take action. If you suffered a heart attack, stroke, arrhythmia, or other cardiac injury, or a loved one suffered a fatal overdose from propoxyphene, you may be able to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for your losses. The Rottenstein Law Group, a firm with more than 25 years of experience in product liability law, is currently providing complimentary case reviews. To have your Darvon/Darvocet lawsuit evaluated for free, just fill out this form or call 1 (888) 976-8529.