Champix was approved for use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in January 2007. By 2008 BBC Scotland was reporting alleged bizarre, threatening and suicidal behaviour on the part of people who took the drug, and lawsuits were beginning in the US.
Brian McLinden died just over a year ago and it's been reported that his wife Patricia will also sue Pfizer.
It's odd that stories of sudden and traumatic death, and distressing behaviour, are considered to be a price worth paying for a lower smoking rate.
It didn't take public pressure to get rid of smoking in bars. It took a government-funded pressure group. But years of documented agony (and a non-too-impressive success rate) requires hundreds of people to take legal action before this drug is properly investigated and taken off the prescription lists. People stopped smoking before this drug came on the market and they will continue to give up after it's been dumped.
No comments:
Post a Comment