-The French Agency of sanitary safety of health products (Afssaps) calls, Tuesday November 16 patients who had taken the plectrum, drug database benfluorex reserved for people with diabetes in overweight or with hypertriglyceridemia, to consult their doctor to seek meaningful signs of a valve impairment. This decision follows the results of studies of 500 deaths related to valvular and pulmonary arterial hypertension due to the benfluorex since its placing on the market in 1976.
The new recommendations of the Afssaps essentially concern the patients who took the benfluorex for at least three months between 2006 and 2009, date of its withdrawal from the market. Question patients must consult a physician so that this last search “in the examination and the clinical examination” all the symptoms and signs suggestive of a valve impairment.
Patients who took the benfluorex between 2006 and 2009 with shortness of breath to effort, edema of the lower limbs or abnormal fatigue are also invited to consult rapidly their attending physician.
The Afssaps said that the risk of developing a complication valve is usually observed in the first two years of use and can persist in the two years following the judgment of the benfluorex.
Health insurance may soon implement a device to send a letter to the people who consumed the benfluorex over three months between November 2008 and November 2009. This measure would ensure that all concerned have been informed of the recommendations of the Afssaps.
Authorized in 1976, the plectrum of the laboratoires Servier was originally reserved for people with diabetes in overweight or of hypertriglyceridemia, then has also been prescribed to patients who want to lose weight. A study in 2009 showed the existence of adverse effects that may lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension and cardiac valvular leakage, thus contributing to its withdrawal from the French market on November 30, 2009.
A new study by the National Fund for insurance of employees during the summer 2010, to estimate more than 3,500 the number of hospitalizations due to the benfluorex, and not less than 500 deaths. “Next”.