NZ’s Pharmac Under the Cosh for Rushing Through Approval of Anti-Blood Clotting Drug

New Zealand’s drug regulatory agency, Pharmac was accused of rushing drugs on to the market following the death of at least two people after taking an anti-blood clotting drug. Apart from the two deaths, the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (Carm) has also received more than 50 reports of bleeding among those who had taken the blood thinning drug, Pradaxa.

Some of the leading doctors in the country accused Pharmac of rushing the drug to the market even before finding how to manage its side effects.

Says Humphrey Pullon, of the Haematology Society, “We do have concerns about the way it was rolled out. It was rolled out very rapidly without a lot of forethought and planning. In particular the fact that general practitioners could have widespread access to this drug from day one was a concern to us, when some of them did not know how to use it.”



Source-Medindia