Feb. 8, 2012 at 10:20am
BAYERBAYER HEALTHCARE PHARMACEUTICALSBEYAZBlood ClotsCVSTDROSPIRENONEDRSPDRSP/EEDVTDeep Vein ThrombosisFDAGIANVIMass TortsOCELLAPEPharmaPulmonary EmboliSAFYRALStrokesYASMINYAZcardiac arrythmiaYAZ VICTIMSDRSP LAWSUITSDROSPIRENONE LAWSUITS

February 8, 2012 - Sixty (60) Days After FDA Advisory Committee Vote on DRSP (DROSPIRENONE) Containing Birth Control Pills.

Prior to #FDA Advisory Committee hearings, held on 12/8/11, regarding #DRSP (#DROSPIRENONE) containing birth control pills, the manufacturer released a newsletter confirming that it had been ‘served’ with 10,400 lawsuits alleging personal injuries or death. This figure was an estimate as of 10/8/11, two months before the FDA Advisory Committee hearings would consider the latest FDA funded study confirming the pills present a significantly higher risk to users of blood clots that is estimated at 75%-77% higher in comparison to other pills. This finding was released by FDA in late October 2011.

The FDA Advisory Committee voted 15-11 that the pills effectiveness in prevention of pregnancy outweighed their safety risks. This narrow vote of confidence meant the pills barely survived a recommendation that they be the subject of a ‘recall’ or ‘market withdrawal’. Recently released transcripts of the FDA Advisory Committee vote arguably reveal confusion on the vote and a missed opportunity to intervene on behalf of a Generation of #DRSP (#DROSPIRENONE) Vicitms, or YAZ VICTIMS. The FDA Advisory Committee also voted, and recommended, an updated warning label to reflect new and emerging scientific evidence that the pills in fact present higher risks of blood clots to users of all ages. Official FDA action the Advisory Committee recommendations remain pending today - February 8, 2012 - 60 (sixty) days after the Advisory Meeting met and held public hearings.

Gabriel F. Zambrano, P.A., is the author of this commentary. Gabriel F. Zambrano, P.A. is actively investigating cases of blood clots- for YAZ VICTIMS - from the use of #DRSP (#DROSPIRENONE) containing birth control pills: #YASMIN, #YAZ, #BEYAZ, #SAFYRAL, #OCELLA and #GIANVI, as well as related generic equivalents.  Additional information is available from Gabriel F. Zambrano, P.A., or by contacting this office directly.

(Source: yazrecall.com)

Jan. 30, 2012 at 6:17am
NYTimesFDAYAZYASMINBEYAZSAFYRALDRSPDROSPIRENONEDRSP/EEBlood Clotsdeep vein thrombosisVTEDVTPulmonary EmboliStrokesCVSTcardiac arrythmiaCardiac EventsRecallsbirth controlHormonal ContraceptiveDisease MongeringEvergreeningPharma
Have These Symptoms? Buy This Drug by Pauline W. Chen, M.D. It began suddenly a little over 10 years ago. With impressive fluency, friends, family members and patients started asking me about random medications, the odd syncopations of those invented, polysyllabic pharmaceutical brand names – Viagra, Lipitor — rolling perfectly off their tongues. The questions they asked about those drugs did not reflect breaking news or the results of scientific studies. Rather, they were a reflection of sound bites, advertisements and the draw of celebrities who endorsed them, all part of carefully conceived marketing schemes. There’s no question that Americans like their prescription medications. We spend nearly twice as much per person on pharmaceuticals as patients in other developed countries do, and we account for nearly half of all sales worldwide. But in 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration loosened its regulations and the United States became one of only four countries to allow direct-to-consumer advertising (the others are New Zealand, Bangladesh and South Korea), we entered a new era in pharmaceutical consumerism. Players in the drug industry began aiming their advertisements at patients, and their goal was to define in the minds of patients not only the beneficial effects of the drugs but also the diseases they were designed to treat. As Vince Parry, a well-known marketing expert, counseled his colleagues, “If you can define a particular condition and its associated symptoms in the minds of physicians and patients, you can also predicate the best treatment for that condition.” The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “disease mongering,” redefining what is normal and abnormal in a way that widens potential markets for those who sell treatments. And, as detailed in a recent study in the journal Social Science & Medicine, one marketing strategy has accomplished more in this regard than any other by using what has come to be the very symbol of quality and reliability for doctors and patients everywhere: the checklist.  Placed on Web sites, on downloadable apps and in pamphlets in doctors’ offices, these checklists of symptoms have become a critical part of every major pharmaceutical marketing campaign. What makes them so attractive is that they make it easy for patients to diagnose their own ailments, to take some control over their own health. What makes the checklists so powerful is their ability to influence patient preferences. The makers of Yaz, a birth control pill, for example, used a checklist to help promote the use of their drug as a treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a controversial diagnosis said to affect up to 10 percent of women. Alongside links to articles on fashion, makeup, hair and celebrity news, Yaz’s Web site offered a “Body Diary” checklist to help patients determine whether they suffer from the disorder. Taking its cues from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., which mental health professionals use to diagnose disease, the checklist offered watered-down and potentially more inclusive descriptions. A symptom described in the D.S.M. as “persistent and marked anger or irritability or increased interpersonal conflicts” appeared in the Yaz questionnaire as “Felt angry, or irritable.” “Marked change in appetite, overeating, or specific food cravings” became “Had increased appetite or overate; or had cravings for specific foods.” The printable results that patients could then take to their doctors (the site has since been taken down) were on a form emblazoned with the birth control brand. “The whole point of tools like this one is to confine people’s experiences into these categories in order to make a diagnosis in line with the branded drug,” said the author of the study, Mary Ebeling, an assistant professor of sociology at Drexel University in Philadelphia who got interested in the use of checklists while doing research at a marketing firm. “I became really intrigued when I saw a group of marketers sitting around a table in Midtown Manhattan and coming up with symptoms.” Some symptom checklists are clearly branded, so patients and clinicians can easily discern the pharmaceutical interests involved. But many are less obvious or are used as part of advocacy groups’ materials or awareness events. For example, National Depression Screening Day, held annually at college campuses, military sites and community centers across the country, uses a symptom checklist called the Patient Health Questionnaire, or PHQ-9. The nine questions are based on a well-known anxiety screening tool, but its copyright is held by Pfizer, maker of the antidepressant Zoloft. It’s difficult to ascertain whether efforts aimed directly at consumers ultimately translate into real sales. A recent marketing study found that fewer than 3 percent of patients mentioned a marketed drug by name and less than 1 percent asked for a prescription. However, a separate study comparing patients in Canada, where direct-to-consumer marketing is illegal, with those in the United States found that American patients were more than twice as likely to request advertised medications. But sales may not be the only measure of success for these campaigns. “The whole point of this marketing and branding is that the name ends up in the minds of the consumers,” Dr. Ebeling said. While the Obama administration is looking to force pharmaceutical companies to disclose any payments to doctors that might influence their treatment decision, marketing efforts directed at patients are likely to continue to grow. And with those efforts comes a widening, not shrinking, circle of interests that can influence their care. “There are pharmaceutical marketers, medical device makers, health insurers and whoever is involved in the health industry sitting in the exam room, not just the doctor and patient,” Dr. Ebeling said. She added, “I find that disturbing, because it’s our health and the quality of our lives that are at stake.” Have These Symptoms? Buy This Drug by Pauline W. Chen, M.D. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Pakistan as one of four countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals. The four countries are the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Bangladesh, not Pakistan.

Have These Symptoms? Buy This Drug by Pauline W. Chen, M.D.

It began suddenly a little over 10 years ago. With impressive fluency, friends, family members and patients started asking me about random medications, the odd syncopations of those invented, polysyllabic pharmaceutical brand names – Viagra, Lipitor — rolling perfectly off their tongues.

The questions they asked about those drugs did not reflect breaking news or the results of scientific studies. Rather, they were a reflection of sound bites, advertisements and the draw of celebrities who endorsed them, all part of carefully conceived marketing schemes.

There’s no question that Americans like their prescription medications. We spend nearly twice as much per person on pharmaceuticals as patients in other developed countries do, and we account for nearly half of all sales worldwide. But in 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration loosened its regulations and the United States became one of only four countries to allow direct-to-consumer advertising (the others are New Zealand, Bangladesh and South Korea), we entered a new era in pharmaceutical consumerism.

Players in the drug industry began aiming their advertisements at patients, and their goal was to define in the minds of patients not only the beneficial effects of the drugs but also the diseases they were designed to treat.

As Vince Parry, a well-known marketing expert, counseled his colleagues, “If you can define a particular condition and its associated symptoms in the minds of physicians and patients, you can also predicate the best treatment for that condition.”

The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “disease mongering,” redefining what is normal and abnormal in a way that widens potential markets for those who sell treatments. And, as detailed in a recent study in the journal Social Science & Medicine, one marketing strategy has accomplished more in this regard than any other by using what has come to be the very symbol of quality and reliability for doctors and patients everywhere: the checklist. 

Placed on Web sites, on downloadable apps and in pamphlets in doctors’ offices, these checklists of symptoms have become a critical part of every major pharmaceutical marketing campaign. What makes them so attractive is that they make it easy for patients to diagnose their own ailments, to take some control over their own health.

What makes the checklists so powerful is their ability to influence patient preferences.

The makers of Yaz, a birth control pill, for example, used a checklist to help promote the use of their drug as a treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a controversial diagnosis said to affect up to 10 percent of women. Alongside links to articles on fashion, makeup, hair and celebrity news, Yaz’s Web site offered a “Body Diary” checklist to help patients determine whether they suffer from the disorder.

Taking its cues from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., which mental health professionals use to diagnose disease, the checklist offered watered-down and potentially more inclusive descriptions. A symptom described in the D.S.M. as “persistent and marked anger or irritability or increased interpersonal conflicts” appeared in the Yaz questionnaire as “Felt angry, or irritable.” “Marked change in appetite, overeating, or specific food cravings” became “Had increased appetite or overate; or had cravings for specific foods.” The printable results that patients could then take to their doctors (the site has since been taken down) were on a form emblazoned with the birth control brand.

“The whole point of tools like this one is to confine people’s experiences into these categories in order to make a diagnosis in line with the branded drug,” said the author of the study, Mary Ebeling, an assistant professor of sociology at Drexel University in Philadelphia who got interested in the use of checklists while doing research at a marketing firm. “I became really intrigued when I saw a group of marketers sitting around a table in Midtown Manhattan and coming up with symptoms.”

Some symptom checklists are clearly branded, so patients and clinicians can easily discern the pharmaceutical interests involved. But many are less obvious or are used as part of advocacy groups’ materials or awareness events. For example, National Depression Screening Day, held annually at college campuses, military sites and community centers across the country, uses a symptom checklist called the Patient Health Questionnaire, or PHQ-9. The nine questions are based on a well-known anxiety screening tool, but its copyright is held by Pfizer, maker of the antidepressant Zoloft.

It’s difficult to ascertain whether efforts aimed directly at consumers ultimately translate into real sales. A recent marketing study found that fewer than 3 percent of patients mentioned a marketed drug by name and less than 1 percent asked for a prescription. However, a separate study comparing patients in Canada, where direct-to-consumer marketing is illegal, with those in the United States found that American patients were more than twice as likely to request advertised medications.

But sales may not be the only measure of success for these campaigns. “The whole point of this marketing and branding is that the name ends up in the minds of the consumers,” Dr. Ebeling said.

While the Obama administration is looking to force pharmaceutical companies to disclose any payments to doctors that might influence their treatment decision, marketing efforts directed at patients are likely to continue to grow. And with those efforts comes a widening, not shrinking, circle of interests that can influence their care.

“There are pharmaceutical marketers, medical device makers, health insurers and whoever is involved in the health industry sitting in the exam room, not just the doctor and patient,” Dr. Ebeling said.

She added, “I find that disturbing, because it’s our health and the quality of our lives that are at stake.”

Have These Symptoms? Buy This Drug by Pauline W. Chen, M.D.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Pakistan as one of four countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals. The four countries are the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Bangladesh, not Pakistan.