CALPIRG Blog

An article in today's New York Times about a pharmaceutical company stopping sales of a possibly-dangerous drug highlights the importance of preventing drug companies from hiding safety information.    

The drug, called Trasylol, is used to limit bleeding during heart surgery.  But two recently-published studies show that its use may also increase the risks of kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, and even death.  In response, the drug company that produces it, Bayer, decided to pull it from the market.

The kicker is that Bayer was aware of these problems even before the studies were published.  They'd done an internal clinical trial that also showed that the drug could be dangerous and cause death or strokes.  But they failed to give that report to the F.D.A., an oversight that Bayer characterized, with notable understatement, as a "regrettable human error."  

Stories like this are the reason why CALPIRG has worked to make pharmaceutical companies publicly disclose the results of all of their clinical trials.  A law passed by Congress and signed in September by President Bush will do exactly that, requiring drug companies to release their drug safety studies.  Rather than simply "regretting" errors, this new policy will make sure that important drug safety information doesn't slip through the cracks.  

You can read the news article here.  You can read more about the CALPIRG-backed drug safety bill here.