That's scary!

Thank you for the heads' up!
 
Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC | Homepage | 05.05.08 - 9:25 am | #

This is why physicians are required to make sure a woman has 2 negative pregnancy tests and can commit to using 2 separate forms of contraception before they will prescribe accutane:
http://www.fda.gov/Cder/Drug/inf...utane/ smart.pdf
Lily | Homepage | 05.05.08 - 9:36 am | #

This is why I've always thought that health insurers' claims data would be the holy grail of healthcare. I notice lately that WellPoint, UnitedHealth and others are now actually acknowledging this by teaming up with the FDA to check effectiveness and safety of drugs after the hit the market.

From a Wall Street Journal article just a couple of weeks ago:

"WellPoint scoured its data to see what it could have learned about Vioxx had the system been up and running when that drug came on the market in 1999. The company says it could have spotted heart-related hazards linked to the Merck painkiller within four months after the drug's debut. It ran a similar test on Baycol, a cholesterol-fighting statin that Bayer AG was pushed to withdraw in 2001 because of its link to a severe muscle-weakening disease. Though the drug was on the market for four years, the WellPoint system established Baycol's increased risk of the disease within a similar time span as with Vioxx."

The rest is here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB...tml? mod=WSJBlog

Or in a shorter version here, if you're blocked by a firewall:
http://www.informationweek.com/ n...cleID=207400413

My guess, Bob, is that the insurer that denies for Accutane is one of the Twin Towers that has discovered this in data, and I bet if you look up their formulary, the stuff's not covered for existing members, either.

Now, why a safety issue with any drug is something that would not be shouted from the rooftops and become common knowledge among all insurers and all resources is something that really merits a public discussion.
Rick | 05.05.08 - 3:13 pm | #

We've known that accutane causes serious birth defects for a long time (longer than I've been in training, and that's like.. for ever).

However, those birth defects are limited to the time when patients are on accutane (and potentially the following menstrual cycle) and patients on accutane are instructed to use 2 simultaneous forms of birth control to avoid pregnancy.
Midwife with a knife | Homepage | 05.13.08 - 5:36 pm | #