As a Miami pharmaceutical products liability lawyer, I am happy to see that the FDA has scheduled a review of the diet drug Meridia. Meridia is manufactured by Abbott Laboratories and has already been withdrawn in Europe. For some reason the FDA wants to leave it available for us to consume for at least another month.
Another supposed diet wonder drug is Rimonabant, manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis. Our FDA declined to approve it in 2007, saying it increased the risk of suicide and depression. A recent article in the Lancet agreed, linking Rimonabant to “serious neuropsychiatric side effects”.
Seems like the FDA is on a roll after deciding that Avandia should be either pulled or only given on a very restricted basis.
Prescription drug manufacturers better take note, its seems like the days of trying to put dangerous drugs on the US market may be numbered.
Concerns that Avandia increases the risk of a heart attack were widely publicized in May 2007 in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine.
