Real dangers of Alzheimer's drugs revealed -- if you can afford to know

Some terrible new warnings have just been sounded on Exelon and Aricept — two frequently prescribed drugs for Alzheimer’s.

These drugs have now been linked to heart attacks, lung failure, shattered bones, and even sudden death.

You won’t find these side effects on the warning labels, no matter how hard you look. And there’s a good chance your doctor has never been alerted by the FDA.

Because thousands of cases of severe reactions to Exelon and Aricept have been sitting for years in data the FDA collects and manages.

But it wasn’t the FDA who found them.

We’re (not) warning you

The FDA doesn’t look at its own data.

That simple – and alarming – fact has allowed companies like AdverseEvents to make a bundle.

Financial firms, managed care organizations and even Big Pharma pay AdverseEvents to analyze FDA data on side effects.

They want to know which drugs people might sue over next — they call that staying on top of the “litigation risk.”

And when it was combing through years of FDA data, AdverseEvents uncovered what may be the terrifying and long-hidden truth about Exelon and Aricept.

AdverseEvents found 1,200 reports of deaths in patients taking Exelon, and cases of heart and lung failure. The company also discovered a pattern of bone breaks among Exelon patients.

And for anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s, a fracture can be a death sentence.

The other Alzheimer’s drug, Aricept, was “red-flagged” by AdverseEvents after it found cases of sudden death, heart attacks, heart and lung failure, neuroleptic malignant syndrome (a brain disorder that causes muscle rigidity and delirium) and comas.

You can bet the drug companies will be circling the wagons to defend Exelon and Aricept. They’ll tell you that patients taking these medications are elderly, fragile and more likely to suffer from heart disease or even sudden, unexplained death.

But AdverseEvents uses a special algorithm – an algorithm the drug companies pay dearly for – that screens out these other factors. It looks for conditions most likely caused by prescription drugs and not something else.

So obviously, there’s something terribly wrong with this picture. And I’m not just talking about the dangers posed by these extremely risky meds.

We were never supposed to know about the risks of Exelon and Aricept. AdverseEvents was so disturbed by what it found that it released a special report to the public – but, usually, it reserves its findings for its paying customers.

But where the FDA is concerned, we’re its paying customers. And we don’t seem to be getting much for our money.

The only reason these killer side effects were exposed is because AdverseEvents did a job the FDA failed to do. And they did it with the FDA’s own data.

It makes you wonder whether we’re being left in the dark about the risks of dozens of other drugs.

But even before Exelon and Aricept harmed their first victim, the FDA should have issued a different warning about these drugs for “treating” Alzheimer’s. Namely, that they’re worthless.

Even the FDA admits that most patients on Aricept “experienced no change or became worse” while taking it.

And that’s something you won’t find on the label, either.

Source:

“AdverseEvents: Analysis of side-effect reports turns up troubling safety signals for Novartis, Eisai drugs” Emily Wasserman, April 7, 2015, FiercePharma, fiercepharma.com