ARTHRITIS DRUG ACTEMRA LINKED TO DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS

The popular arthritis drug, Actemra, has been linked to heart attack, stroke, and other serious side effects, and investigations are underway to determine whether the makers of Actemra were aware of the side effects and failed to warn the medical community and consumers.

National media covering health, medicine, and scientific discoveries, recently completed an investigation of Actemra and recommended to the Food and Drug Administration that they require new label warnings to the drug. According to this news organization, STAT, Actemra users experienced an increased incidence of heart attacks and strokes. Users of the drug also suffered from interstitial lung disease.

You can read STAT’s news story for yourself here:

Failure to warn: Hundreds died while taking an arthritis drug, but nobody alerted patients

Actemra (tocilizumab) is manufactured by Roche and has been on the market since 2010 as an immunosuppressive medication, and was recently approved for the treatment of giant cell (rheumatoid) arthritis in adults in May. It is also approved to treat polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis or systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis in children two and up.

There have been thousands of adverse event reports linked to Actemra filed with the FDA, and more than 1100 of these reports included fatal reactions. People using the drug have experienced a variety of severe side effects, including:

• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Interstitial lung disease
• Gastro-intestinal rupture or tears

Competitor drugs to Actemra have also been found to have risks of adverse events, but they contain warning labels warning of that risk.

For example, the competitor drug Enbrel contains a warning about a risk of heart attack or stroke while Actemra does not, even though STAT found that Actemra users had a 50 percent higher likelihood of those events than Enbrel

Similarly, STAT’s investigation found there to be an equal number of interstitial lung disease incidents with Actemra as with Humira, and a higher incidence than with Remicade. Like Enbrel, Humira and Remicade feature warnings while Actemra does not.

ACTEMRA APPROVED VIA FDA Fast-Track Program

Recently researchers from the Mayo Clinic and Yale University found many new drugs approved by the FDA are linked to serious side effects requiring updated warning labels – meaning people using many FDA-approved drugs are at risk and only learn of potential side effects after the fact.

In January 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated the FDA was approving too many drugs through its fast-track approval program, and was not adequately monitoring these drugs once they were in use.

Actemra Lawsuit: Get Legal Help Now

Actemra has been on the market for more than seven years, and the dangers may have been known for longer. The makers of Actemra must be held accountable for not warning the public of potentially lethal risks to its drug.

Filing a lawsuit is an important step toward ensuring that drug manufacturers do not get away with dangerous business practices. On top of that, patients who were victims of the company’s failure to warn deserve compensation for injuries.

Consult your physician before stopping any medications prescribed by your doctor. For more information or to speak to someone about a potential claim, contact our office to schedule a consultation.

If you or a loved one experienced negative side effects after using Actemra or a similar drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis, contact us today for a free case evaluation. Our law firm is currently investigating Actemra claims.