AR-News: Arava deaths

Sat Jan 31 14:10:17 EST 2004

http://www.manoramaonline.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=manorama/MmArticle/CommonFullStory&cid=1075191182766&c=MmArticle&p=1002194839100&count=10&colid=1002258272843&channel=News

http://www.manoramaonline.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=manorama/MmArticle/CommonFullStory&cid=1075191182766&c=MmArticle&p=1002194839100&count=10&colid=1002258272843&channel=News

Manorama Online. 27 January 2004.
Arava deaths: Aventis in shadow .

Tokyo: Five patients in Japan who used Aventis Pharma's
Arava rheumatoid arthritis drug have died of interstitial
pneumonia over the past four months since the drug was
launched in Japan.
According to the Japanese unit of the Franco-German
pharmaceutical giant, eleven other patients who used the
drug, which is generically known as leflunomide, have
developed interstitial pneumonia.
The Tokyo-based subsidiary asked medical doctors to refrain
from prescribing the drug to patients who previously
suffered from interstitial pneumonia or lung fibrosis, or
exhibit respiratory symptoms like coughing. According to
Aventis Pharma, the company has monitored 3,412 users of
the
drug since its launch in Japan in September last year and
started receiving reports about the pneumonia in late
October.

The company has confirmed the five deaths in Japan.

The victims ranged in age from 57 to 71. In two of the
cases, doctors attributed the cause of death to the drug,
but the relationship between the drug and the remaining
three deaths is unknown, the firm said. Japan's Health
Ministry approved Arava for use in Japan last April based
on
overseas clinical trial data. It did not conduct a phase
III
trial, which tests if the drug works in large numbers of
patients and is the last step before a drug can be approved
for regular use, in Japan, Aventis Pharma said.
Arava was put on the market in Europe and the United States
in 1998.

Animal experiments have:
a 63% failure rate when detecting human carcinogens
a 75-95% failure rate for detecting drug side effects
a 70% failure rate for detecting drugs which cause birth defects
Success rates lower than those achieved by uneducated guesswork.

This is not science!!

Recommended website: The Absurdity of vivisection
http://vivisection-absurd.org.uk/

Information on animal research available free by EMail from 
vivisectionkills at hotmail.com

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