Check on the latest news on fluorinated drugs. Recent items include news on Torcetrapib (UK/Global), Celebrex (US/Germany), Prozac (UK/Canada), Paxil (UK/USA), Risperdal (US), Crestor (US/Canada), Lariam (US), and Cisapride (UK).
A Poison Control Center bulletin alerting to fluorinated drugs, written by Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Head of the National Poison Centre at Universiti Sains Malaysia, from September 2, 2001. It also appeared in the New Sunday Times.
In June 2003, the US FDA finally issued an alert on these drugs due to concerns of increased self-harm in children taking those medications. The use of these drugs is so widespread that now they are appearing in the water supply. The article here is of technical nature - mostly concerning effects on thyroid hormones.
Since March 2002, UPI reporters Mark Benjamin and Dan Olmsted have been investigating severe mental problems associated with Lariam, a drug that has been prescribed to 5 million Americans and 25 million people worldwide. As with other fluorinated drugs, suicide is occurring much too often.
After having been on the market for only three months this drug - which had been "fast-tracked" for approval in Japan where it became the second fastest drug approval ever - had caused 39 deaths (October 2002). By February 2003 that number had risen to 167.
In October 2001 the PFPC released its most-widely circulated Drug Alert ever, on Cipro. The article also appeared in the Winter 2001 edition of the Journal of the Weston Price Foundation.
This drug is now under intense investigation in the UK. Linked to more than 100 deaths it is being blamed for a series of gross miscarriages of justice that have seen hundreds of parents wrongly accused of child abuse.
On August 30th, 2001, the New York Times reported that thirty Nigerian families sued Pfizer in federal court August 29, saying the company conducted an unethical clinical trial of the antibiotic Trovan on their children in 1996. Eleven children in the trial died, while others suffered brain damage, were partly paralyzed or became deaf.
In 2001 the WHO/EMEA reported of a total of 296 cases with hepatic reactions implicating Leflunomide. Of these, 129 cases were considered as serious, including 2 cases of liver cirrhosis and 15 cases of liver failure, 9 with fatal outcome. The hepatic reactions appeared within 6 months of initiation of treatment. Read more...
Just like its cousin Baycol a few years ago, the statin drug Crestor has been in recent news because of its association with a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis.
In the September 8, 2001 issue of the BMJ Bharani and Kumar reported a case of diabetes insipidus induced by ofloxacin, stating that the mechanism of this interaction is not clear. The PFPC responded with a possible mechanism concerning this fluoroquinolone and “fluorine diabetes”. Read more...
"According to a recent book, by 1990 around 220 fluorinated drugs were on the market, representing 8 per cent of launched synthetic drugs, and at the time of its publication, around 1500 were under development."
By 2002 the situation had changed incredibly...
Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC) Head Office 78 Malta Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5M-4C4 e-mail