Gone!
Bayer will pull its antibleeding drug Trasylol from the U.S. market amid growing evidence it may be linked to a higher risk of death than that of competing drugs, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
It wasn't clear late yesterday if Bayer, based in Germany, would halt sales of the drug in other countries, although such a move would be likely in light of a suspension of U.S. sales.
Trasylol, which is supposed to reduce blood loss and allow patients undergoing heart-bypass surgery to avoid transfusions, would be the third drug this year whose sale in the U.S. was halted under scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration, a signal of how the agency is weighing safety issues heavily in drug decisions. Still, the history of Trasylol, which was approved in the U.S. in 1993 and has been tied to high-profile safety concerns at least since early 2006, is likely to draw questions from Congress and plaintiff attorneys.
The drug had world-wide sales of £230 million ($338 million) in 2005. Sales dropped by about a third last year.
More at the WSJ
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