Researchers find deadly prescription drug effects 6 years ...( ld. His phone rings weekly with calls f...),Health

ld. His phone rings weekly with calls from concerned doctors alerting him to possible new trouble. After such a call, Bennett probes for clues that led to a life-threatening reaction to a drug. Whats the age and weight of the patient, x-rays, details of the physical exam and blood tests? hell ask. Hell canvas doctors to see if theyve seen similar cases. If a vital piece of evidence is missing, Bennett even will track down a doctor at home on a Sunday and ask her to drive back to her office to check a chart. Then Bennett and his team fit all the puzzle pieces together to figure out what happened and how to prevent it in the future.

The new study also shows, however, that the FDA and drug companies were faster than RADAR to spread the word about serious adverse drug reactions. RADAR relies on publishing its studies in peer-reviewed medical journals, a process that takes longer than the FDAs warning letters to doctors and the drug companies package inserts.

Thus, its time for a formal collaboration between RADAR and the FDA to wed their strengths, said Bennett, who also is co-director for cancer control of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.

We need to work together as partners, Bennett said of the FDA. Pharmaceutical side effects are one of the top five causes of death in this country. We want to move it out of the top five. This is the way to start that process and save thousands of lives.

Bennett envisions a formal partnership with the FDA in which he would share RADARs investigations on safety issues, arrive at a joint insight on drug problems and have the FDA distribute the information to doctors.

The old way of doing business was a large number of incomplete reports that took an average of seven years to find adverse reactions to drugs, Bennett said. We propose with our system we can cut that to between one to two years. Thats a six-year savings. For a billion dollar drug, can you imagine h
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Contact: Marla Paul
marla-paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
28-May-2007

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