Further Concerns on Elidel

I have talk about the dangers of Elidel in one of my earlier post. If you are using or know someone else who are using Elidel, please be aware that the dangers are very real.  Here is a recent article on further concerns on Elidel.

Source: Pharmalive.com

WASHINGTON, January 16, 2007 /PRNewswire/ — A case in Pennsylvania against Novartis, involves a toddler who developed cancer due to a failure-to-warn about the risks associated with the topical drug Elidel. In an important decision sure to have an impact on many other cases in the US, on October 16, 2006, a US District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania refused to grant the drug maker’s preemption motion in, Perry v Novartis Pharma Corp, — F Supp 2d —, 2006 WL 2979388.

Elidel was approved by the FDA on December 13, 2001, to treat atopic dermatitis, commonly known as eczema, in a cream applied directly to the skin, for persons over the age of two.

Elidel belongs to a class of immunosuppressant drugs known as calcineurin inhibitors. At the time of its approval, there were already concerns about an association between Elidel and cancer because other calcineurin inhibitors that were used to treat organ transplant patients were known to increase the risk of cancer and lymphoma, and carried a Black Box warning to that affect. At the time of its approval, Elidel had also been found to increase the risk of cancer in animals when administered at high doses.

Because of its concerns about cancer, the FDA placed restrictions on Elidel and approved it only for short-term and intermittent use, and as a second-line of treatment to be used only when traditional therapies such as corticosteroids were found to be ineffective.

    For further information about Elidel, go to
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/case/elidel?ref=pr .