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Makers of diabetes drugs advertise adverse effects as advantages (seriously)!

It’s been just an hour since you popped your diabetes pill. But as you’re heading down the stairs, you suddenly don’t feel right.

You’re lightheaded. The room is spinning. You’re hanging onto that bannister for dear life.

But don’t worry – you’re not experiencing a side effect from the drug. You’re enjoying a side benefit.

Because with a sleight of hand, Big Pharma has found a way to market serious and potentially deadly side effects – like dehydration, dizziness and diarrhea — as actual advantages.

In fact, they’ve discovered a set of magic words that lets them run roughshod over FDA rules and sell you drugs for conditions they were never meant to treat.

Presto change-o!

The ads say that Farxiga and Invokana may help lower your blood pressure – and they’re right.

If you’re not careful, these two diabetes drugs will lower your blood pressure right down to zero.

Both drugs can cause a serious side effect called “volume depletion.” They push out glucose through your urine, which can leave you with severe dehydration, dizziness, and even damage to your kidneys and heart.

It’s the dehydration that causes your blood pressure to drop.

So how on earth do AstraZeneca and Janssen Pharmaceuticals – the makers of Farxiga and Invokana — get away with marketing a severe side effect as a blood-pressure-lowering advantage?

They know the magic words.

You hear the magic words in drug ads all the time. Words like, “Although it’s not a blood pressure drug…” or “Although it’s not approved for weight loss…”

As long as Big Pharma first acknowledges what a drug was – and was not – meant to treat, they can claim just about anything. They can even claim their long list of drug side effects is actually helping you.

And the diabetes drug makers have been going to town.

Farxiga, Invokana, Victoza and Jardiance – four blockbuster diabetes drugs made by four different manufacturers — all have ads claiming they “may” help drop your weight along with your blood sugar.

But I don’t think the way they help you lose weight is anything to brag about.

All four drugs can cause severe nausea that will have you fleeing the smell of food. And for Victoza, nausea and diarrhea are the most common side effects listed on the label.

That’s not the way I’d choose to lose weight.

Keeping Big Pharma and its wild claims in check is the job of the FDA. So why does the FDA let these ads make it to prime time? Why is it allowing drug companies to market serious side effects as benefits?

That’s what a major consumer group is asking – and they’ve submitted a letter insisting that the FDA take down the ads and fine the drug makers for misleading us.

They’re asking the FDA to punish this off-label marketing more aggressively than ever before. So, in other words, don’t hold your breath.

And with the FDA sitting on its hands… and with so many exciting opportunities to “accentuate the positive” and “eliminate the negative”… you can expect Big Pharma is going to be inserting a lot more magic words into its ads.

That drug that causes severe drowsiness? It’s now an insomnia cure.

That pill that’s making you twitch and fidget? Well, it’s simply helping you burn calories.

The only limit is Big Pharma’s imagination. And since most drug companies spend more on marketing than on researching and making their drugs safer, they’ll be hiring the most creative minds Madison Avenue has to offer.

But, of course, in real life it’s another win-lose situation. With us on the losing end while the FDA turns a deaf ear.

And it’s another reminder that you should always read drug warning labels carefully. Because you’re not getting the full story from drug company marketing – just a fairy tale.

Source:

“FDA urged to fine drugmakers over ads” Elizabeth MacDonald, April 1, 2015, Fox Business, foxbusiness.com

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