Reports linking the blood pressure medication Benicar to intestinal problems were a hot topic of conversation at this year’s Digestive Disease Week meeting — considered the largest and most prestigious meeting in the world for the gastrointestinal professionals.
A report in Gastroenterology and Endoscopy News says Benicar has been linked to severe symptoms similar to those of sprue, or celiac disease.
That’s not the only concern that health care professionals have raised ...
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An outbreak of hepatitis A has been reported in five western states, and government officials say frozen berries may be the source.
A CBS News report says the illnesses were first reported in April, and 30 people have since been infected in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. Nine of them have been hospitalized.
Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have linked ...
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A report on ABC 15 out of Arizona deals with the thousands of women who have suffered complications as a result of using the Mirena intrauterine device.
According to the report, 59,229 users filed complaints with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the devices since 2004. The most common is “expulsion,” in which the device came out on its own. But there were also more than 1,300 reports from 2008 ...
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In the course of an investigation about the class of diabetes drugs that includes Byetta and Januvia, the medical journal BMJ uncovered evidence suggesting that manufacturers tried to repress evidence linking the drugs to serious health problems.
A growing body of evidence has linked incretin therapies such as Byetta and Januvia to both pancreatitis (a potentially deadly inflammation of the pancreas) and pancreatic cancer. Byetta has also been linked to thyroid ...
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AL.com reports that a dialysis center in Bessemer, Alabama, remains shut down, but investigators have yet to identify a specific cause or pattern for the infections that killed two patients and hospitalized several others in May.
Although a laboratory analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recovered six different bacteria from blood cultures of patients who were sickened, no pattern indicating a specific cause has been established.
The center’s ...
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A story in the Irish Independent says Pfizer intends to sell one of its Irish plants, in large part because of declining revenues from its anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.
Sales of Lipitor, a former blockbuster for the company, have been plummeting recently because its patent expired, opening it up to competition from generics. The drug has also been the subject of some recent health concerns.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added ...
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