Word: redux
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last week it became startlingly clear that monkeying with the chemistry of the human mind can trigger problems much more serious than a dull sex life. Just 1 1/2 years after it approved Redux for treatment of obesity, the FDA issued a warning advising patients to stop taking it and its close chemical cousin fenfluramine immediately. At the same time, the drugs' manufacturers and distributors, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, told physicians to stop prescribing them and took the dramatic step of pulling both medications from the market. The reason for such haste: new evidence had revealed that as many...
These were not the first lethal side effects associated with Redux and fenfluramine. When Redux was approved, both Wyeth-Ayerst and the FDA already knew that the medication could lead to a potentially fatal lung condition known as primary pulmonary hypertension. But this problem seemed to affect only a small minority of users, and morbid obesity carries significant risks of its own: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke. On balance, the benefits seemed to outweigh the risks...
...equation suddenly seesaw the other way? Partly because clinical trials reveal only the most obvious side effects; the heart-valve changes discovered over the summer do not initially cause visible symptoms in most patients. Also, many doctors went overboard, giving Redux and fen/phen to patients who were merely overweight, not obese, a violation of the FDA and drug-company prescription criteria that couldn't help skewing the risk-benefit ratio...
...Wurtman separated fenfluramine into its two component chemicals, levofenfluramine and dexfenfluramine. The latter has revealed itself to be a powerful weight-loss medication. He patented the drug for M.I.T., founded a company called Interneuron Pharmaceuticals to manufacture it under license to Wyeth-Ayerst and began moving the drug, dubbed Redux, through the FDA-approval process...
From the start, it was clear that Redux has serious potential side effects. One is primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare form of high blood pressure that strikes the blood vessels of the lungs. Another, considered even more serious by some of Redux's critics, was the possibility of brain damage. When fed to monkeys, dexfenfluramine can destroy neurons. Says John Harvey of the Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia, who edits the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics: "Any of us who were pharmacologists knew this was a dirty drug. None of us was surprised...