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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (436)	6/29/1998 10:26:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

UPI Science News Report: Valigra deaths number 30 Monday June 29 9:36 PM EDT NEW YORK, June 29 (UPI) - Reports say about 30 men have died and 70 others have suffered serious adverse reactions after taking the impotence drug Viagra. The report, first published in the Wall Street Journal, said the nonfatal reactions include seven heart attacks, eight strokes, four blackouts, and six serious vision problems. The manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., New York, estimated that 2 million people in the United States have taken Viagra since it was approved in March. Viagra also has been approved in Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Morocco, and Kuwait. ''If there are only seventy reactions that's pretty good,'' Raymond Woosley, head of Pharmacology at Georgetown University, told United Press International. But he added there may be as many as a hundred unreported cases for every one that is reported to the Food and Drug Administration. And the FDA reports are often ''sketchy,'' says Woosley, who reviewed the reports. Woosley told UPI that the basic problem for Viagra was its very success. About 50 percent of all drugs must have modifications to their warning labels once they are out in the market. ''No drug is ever perfectly safe,'' said Woosley. But in this case, he said, ''So many people are taking so many pills in such a short time,'' adverse reactions surfaced more quickly than is the case in most drugs. Woosley is especially concerned with Viagra's potential interaction with various blood pressure medications. Viagra does lower blood pressure and in combination with certain other drugs may lower blood pressure too much. This did not show up with the several thousand who took part in the trials, but it looks like it is occuring with some of the several million who are taking Viagra on the market. Many of the reports Woosley saw mentioned that patients were taking various blood pressure pills. One drug that should be especially watched if taken along with Viagra is Hytrin, a drug orginally taken for high blood pressure, but is now used in treating prostate conditions. Susan Cruzan, a spokesman for the FDA, said the drug is still considered safe and effective for the intended patient population and that the FDA will continue to monitor reports. Mariann Caprino a spokesman for Pfizar told UPI that ''the experiences we're seeing are in line with what we saw in our clinical trials and the drug remains safe and effective when used appropriately in patients who have been properly diagnosed.'' ''Yes, there are people who have taken the drug, had sex and died. There's no definitive link between the deaths and the drug,'' added Caprino. In fact, people have died of heart attacks during sex long before Viagra was introduced, Woosley told UPI. But he said no good figures on these types of non-Viagra deaths are kept, making it difficult to determine Viagra's full impact. ''I can tell you more about how many pieces of baggage were handled by American Airlines today than I can tell you about the number of heart attacks during sex or the number of adverse drug reactions,'' said Woosley. Woosley called for the adoption of a system such as those that are in place in Britain and France where government employees are paid to discover and report adverse drug reactions. (Written by Ed Ungar in Toronto) Copyright 1998 by United Press International All rights reserved