QDIS Blog

It seems 2006 will be the year of finding out all kinds of things about drugs once though safe.
From Vioxx to everyday over-the-counter pain relievers we have seen unintended consequences raise its ugly head. The latest is the proton pump inhibitor class of compounds including Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, Aciphex and Protonix.

Heartburn drugs raise risk of hip fractures: study | Health | Reuters.com

The study is fairly large; 150,000 Britons over the age of 50. It found they had 13,556 hip fractures which is higher than expected. There was also a correlation to fractures with how long the drug was used and how high of a dose was taken. This is likely due to the drugs inhibiting calcium absorption. The good news is that by increasing calcium consumption these side effects can likely be overcome although studies would need to be done to prove that.

Here is a quote from the article.

“At this point, physicians should be aware of this potential association when considering (proton pump inhibitor) therapy and should use the lowest effective dose for patients with appropriate indications,” said study author Yu-Xiao Yang.

The report on the study, published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, also said that elderly patients requiring long-term and high-dose drug therapy should consider increasing calcium intake.

I have always said that some of this problem is that pharma companies do not want to find out potentially negative information and avoiding doing studies that have a potential for a large downside but little to no upside. While I understand this from a business perspective, I think if there is any data that there could be unintended consequences, they should be investigated.

Technorati Tags: Aciphex, drug safety, Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec, proton pump inhobitor, Protonix

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