Researchers find deadly prescription drug effects 6 years ...( ow many people thats affecting? ...),Health

In the study, Bennett compared RADARs reports on serious events associated with 14 drugs and drug-coated cardiac stents to FDA and drug company reports. The FDA had more reports than RADAR, but RADARs reports were more complete. Pharmaceutical companies sent out safety notifications two years earlier than RADAR reported its results in journals. However, drug companies doctor notifications were less likely than RADARs to include information on the incidence of the drug reaction, outcomes and treatment or prevention.

Our hypothesis is that the quality, not the quantity counts, Bennett said. A small number of very good case reports is better than a large number of very bad case reports.

Bennett leaped into pharmacovigilance -- as the field is called -- when a bad drug reaction got personal. Nearly ten years ago, he was sitting in a case conference when he heard about a woman whose kidneys, brain and blood vessels had mysteriously shut down. No one could figure out why. Bennett visited the woman, who was being kept alive on a ventilator. He immediately recognized his fathers best friend. Bennett dug in and eventually identified a side effect of a drug that hadnt been well recognized. He saved her life. The drug was pulled from the market.

RADAR, whose research has been primarily funded by The National Institutes of Health, focuses on hematology and oncology because that is Bennetts expertise. Bennett hopes his RADAR model will be adopted by researchers in cardiology, ophthalmology and other fields.

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Contact: Marla Paul
marla-paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
28-May-2007