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FDA announced on August 8, 2001 that Bayer
Pharmaceutical Division is voluntarily withdrawing Baycol
(cerivastatin) from the U.S. market because of reports of
sometimes fatal rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle adverse reaction
from this cholesterol-lowering (lipid-lowering) product. The
FDA agrees with and supports this decision. See
the FDA Letter Here.
Cholesterol pills: Have they killed
another 81?
August 21, 2001 - Shortly after a cholesterol drug Baycol
was pulled off the market for causing deadly muscle destruction,
a consumer group charged that five similar medications have
killed an additional 81 people. For more news and articles
click here.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
A cholesterol drug is pulled after 31 people die. What happened?
August 10 — This week,
the German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG voluntarily pulled
its cholesterol-reducing medication Baycol from the market
after 31 deaths had been attributed to its use. Some 700,000
Americans have been taking the drug. The patients who died
had severe rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which in muscle
tissue breaks down, eventually getting into the bloodstream
and damaging the kidneys. NEWSWEEK’s Laura Fording asked
Dr. Jay Cohen, author of the upcoming book “Over Dose:
The Case Against the Drug Companies” (Tarcher/Putnam,
Oct. 2001) for his take on what happened.
“The amount of
research that drug companies are required to do and the way
the FDA analyzes the drugs are certainly not within my comfort
level. ”
— Dr. Jay Cohen, author of “Over Dose: The Case
Against the Drug Companies”
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