‘Secret’ memos reveal more dangers of blockbuster blood-thinner
Urgent warning: “Like a blood thinner on steroids”
There are plenty of reasons your doctor may want you to take a blood thinner — if you have diabetes or aFib, are at high risk of a stroke, or are prone to clots when you’re stuck in coach on a flight across the country.
But I can’t think of one single reason he should want you to take Pradaxa.
Unfortunately, the marketing geniuses at Boehringer Ingelheim (the German company behind this flawed drug) may have convinced your doctor there is one.
Blood on their hands?
You see, with Pradaxa, no routine blood tests are needed. And if you’ve had to have lots of blood tests, that can seem like a pretty good promise. So its commercials make a big point of that. Pradaxa is new and “improved,” “Pradaxa is progress.”
But that’s where the good news ends.
Because Pradaxa was hustled through the FDA’s fast-track approval process. And, as you know, that means the 850,000 people taking it now ARE the clinical study.
This live experiment showed us that Pradaxa does a LOT more than stop clotting…it causes uncontrollable bleeding that CANNOT be stopped.
Finally, the truth about this dangerous drug is being told.
But not by the FDA.
No, it’s coming straight from the horse’s computer — from confidential emails and memos among company insiders.
Just unsealed by a judge in Illinois, the once-secret documents tell the story of a drug that was sold as easier and better than warfarin. And about a heartless company that dismissed an important safety report, just so it could go ahead with a marketing ploy.
Tragically, it took over a thousand deaths for these secret memos finally to be brought out in the open.
It was all about keeping up with its sales message: With Pradaxa, you won’t need to have regular blood testing.
The only problem is, not everyone in the company believed it.
When an internal report on the drug proposed that some patients should still have regular blood tests to look for bleeding dangers, company officials weren’t happy. Some wanted the language softened, others suggested the report be killed altogether.
The marketing department said it would be harder to sell the drug if this got out. The Pradaxa project manager asked that it be checked again to see if “this is really wanted.” Others in the company worried about liability.
One email said that doctors were raising some concerns about that very issue “…but the tricky part is that we have to tailor the messages smart.”
Another of the Pradaxa horrors discussed in those emails detailed how the bleeding danger increases with the age of the patient.
For those over 80, even a low dose of the drug was found to be more dangerous than warfarin when it comes to “major bleeding.”
While these emails were flying back and forth, people were still popping Pradaxa. Enough people to earn the German drug maker over $2 billion in sales.
So what does the company say about all this? Are they hiding in shame over these disclosures?
Not a chance!
In a statement issued this week, it gave a long-winded, mealy-mouthed response that this is all part of the “robust discussion and debate” that’s so “vital” with “important” drugs like Pradaxa.
Until it is yanked off the market, the only thing “vital” about Pradaxa is that you don’t take it.
Sources:
“New emails in Pradaxa case show concern over profit” Katie Thomas, February 7, 2014, The New York Times, nytimes.com
