NOW online: Canadian Adverse Drug Reports to Health Canada

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Zee - 18 Feb 2004 18:38 GMT

For those wanting to know what LIPITOR adverse events have been
reported to a drug regulatory body--Health Canada--Canada's FDA, go
here and "agree" then in the search box type in LIPITOR (or any other
drug):

http://www.cbc.ca/news/adr/database/

This database lists all adverse drug reactions reported to Health
Canada between 1998-2003. It is estimated reported adverse events
represent one to ten percent of the actual adverse events. Note at
least one death has been reported for LIPITOR.

One person searching on their drug said "there were 76 reports on one
of the drugs I take. Most were deaths." This was previously unknown to
this person, and apparently, to the person's physician.

The American FDA, as far as I know, does not make similar information
available on their website. How did this come about in Canada?

Health Canada was forced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
through the Freedom of Information Act to provide this information,
and it was put on the CBC website last night, Feb 17.

At this website you can also download the adverse event reporting
form, and compare it to the form for your country.

How many of us would have taken lipitor, baycol, zocor or any drug if
we had seen the information on this database, and been able to ask our
doctors "what about this?"

For more on this story, go to:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/adr/

B'adant

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listener@nospam.net - 20 Feb 2004 20:15 GMT

>How many of us would have taken lipitor, baycol, zocor or any drug if
>we had seen the information on this database, and been able to ask our
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>B'adant

From the main page:

"There are some very important things to keep in mind when looking at
the results of your search. Some are mentioned elsewhere on this page,
but are worth repeating.

1] People filing a report suspect an adverse reaction was caused by a
drug. ADR reports do not imply a causal link between a reaction and a
suspected drug.

2] Some drugs are much more widely used than others.

3] Certain drugs are used only when a patient is critically ill.

4] Due to under-reporting, it is impossible to project true rates of
adverse reactions based on the information captured by CADRIS.

5] To better understand the data, educate yourself about the uses of
drugs involved in the returned cases.

6] Risk of an adverse drug reaction increases with the number of
medications taken by a patient."

=======================================================

'nuff said.

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