{"id":344,"date":"2009-04-11T06:37:50","date_gmt":"2009-04-11T11:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=344"},"modified":"2009-04-11T06:37:50","modified_gmt":"2009-04-11T11:37:50","slug":"another-drug-linked-to-pml-law-firms-waiting-for-your-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/another-drug-linked-to-pml-law-firms-waiting-for-your-call\/2009\/04\/11\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Drug Linked to PML &#8212; Law Firms Waiting for Your Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The psoriasis drug Raptiva (efalizumab) has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/bbs\/topics\/NEWS\/2009\/NEW01992.html\" target=\"_blank\">linked to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On Oct. 16, 2008, FDA updated the FDA-approved labeling for Raptiva to warn of the risk of life-threatening infections, including PML. On Feb. 19, 2009, the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory informing patients and prescribers of the risk of PML in patients taking Raptiva, after receiving reports of four patients with PML, three of whom died.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I was a fellow, <a href=\"http:\/\/hstelearning.mit.edu\/gcp\/eng\/instructors\/dr_rubin.html\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Rubin<\/a> emphatically taught us that there&#8217;s no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to immunosuppression.\u00a0 I think of this each time one of these newer agents is linked with a severe infectious complication.<\/p>\n<p>But while I was getting some background information on the drug, I came upon <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raptivapml.com\/\">this ugly site<\/a> &#8212; and there are others like it already. They can join sites like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pharmaceuticalinjuryfirm.com\/tysabri.html\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weitzlux.com\/tysabriresourcecenter_603.html\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a> for nataluzimab (Tysabri), the multiple sclerosis drug also linked to PML.\u00a0 These legal firms pounce on drug withdrawals like hungry dogs waiting for table scraps to fall on the floor.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Yes, welcome to America and all, but could anyone actually think that these powerful drugs for difficult-to-treat autoimmune diseases would be <em>risk free?<\/em> The fact that nataluzimab is available again for MS &#8212; now with a comprehensive monitoring program &#8212; serves as proof that sometimes the disease is worse than the side effects.<\/p>\n<p>And reminds us ID docs that <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/index.php?s=enbrel\" target=\"_blank\">decisions<\/a> about whether to use these drugs are tough ones indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The psoriasis drug Raptiva (efalizumab) has been linked to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy: On Oct. 16, 2008, FDA updated the FDA-approved labeling for Raptiva to warn of the risk of life-threatening infections, including PML. On Feb. 19, 2009, the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory informing patients and prescribers of the risk of PML in patients [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,8],"tags":[118,294,306,348,496,757,763,780,954],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","tag-bob-rubin","tag-drug-withdrawals","tag-efalizumab","tag-fda","tag-infectious-complication","tag-progressive-multifocal-leukoencephalopathy","tag-psoriasis-drug","tag-raptiva","tag-tysabri"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}