Cuando la crisis nos alcance...(IX): Fué la "gran banca". Proxima la "gran Farma"...

The human consequences of market failure in the pharmaceutical industry


The happy pill – SSRI drugs

The first of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – SSRI drugs – was Zimelidine.
Zimelidine was developed in the early 1980s for the Swedish company AstraAB. It was first sold in 1982, by 1983 it had been banned worldwide due to serious and fatal cases of central and peripheral neuropathy known as Guillain-Barré syndrome and suicide ideation, particularly in younger people


Vioxx – a drug disaster

Vioxx (Rofecoxib) was introduced and marketed by the drugs company Merck in 1999 as an effective and safer alternative to previous nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of the pain associated with osteoarthritis. Six years later it was removed from the market worldwide when it was recognised that it significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular incidents. It was described by Dr David Graham in the US Senate as the ‘single greatest drug safety catastrophe in the history of this country or the history of the world’.


Baycol – avoidable casualties?

Baycol, also know as Lipobay, was first licensed in 1998 as an anti-cholesterol drug produced by the German drugs firm Bayer. It was seen as an immediate success as millions of people worldwide switched fromusing other statin drugs to Baycol. However, Baycol users soon began to complain of adverse effects, including rhabdomyolysis, a deterioration in muscle tissue, which can lead to kidney failure, paralysis and death.


Ritalin and Concerta – drugs for children

Ritalin and Concerta are amphetamines whose active ingredient is methylphenidate. These two drugs are prescribed to millions of children across the globe to treat a condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). (...) However, in 2007 the study’s co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, stated that the beneficial impact of the medications were exaggerated in the first study and the idea that if children were medicated longer they would have better outcomes was not the case. Professor Pelham, who led the study, stated that in the long run there are ‘no beneficial effects’ of medication.


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