http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ame ... 327743.eceBy Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 18 November 2005
The safety of Tamiflu, the anti-flu drug, has
been questioned for the
second time in a week following reports that it
has been linked to the
deaths of 12 children in Japan.
The drug is being stockpiled by governments
around the world preparing
for a threatened flu pandemic, but American drug
regulators are to
review its status today.
European regulators said on Monday they were
monitoring the
psychological effects of the drug after it was
linked to the suicides of
two Japanese teenagers.
In a report posted online, the US Food and Drug
Administration said
yesterday that 12 children had died in Japan from
causes including heart
attack, suicide, pneumonia and acute
pancreatitis. Four had suffered a
"sudden death", which was "an unusual phenomenon
in otherwise healthy
children". All had taken Tamiflu.
"Deaths from influenza are uncommon among both
children with and without
high-risk conditions, but do occur," the FDA
report said. "Attribution
of causality for the reports of sudden death and
cardio-pulmonary arrest
are extremely difficult to interpret because
there is limited
information leading up to the event." It added
that it was "concerning"
that 32 psychiatric events, such as
hallucinations and abnormal
behaviour, had been reported in children who took
Tamiflu.
A panel of the FDA is examining reports of
adverse reactions to Tamiflu
as part of a wider review of how medicines work
in children. One
question they will have to address is how to
distinguish the effects of
the drug from the effects of the flu.
In a separate summary posted on the FDA web site,
Roche, the
manufacturer of Tamiflu, said: "There is no
increase in deaths and
neuropsychiatric events in patients on Tamiflu
versus influenza patients
in general." Officials from the FDA and the Swiss
drugs giant will
present information about the cases to an FDA
advisory panel today.
Demand for Tamiflu has soared as avian flu, which
has killed at least 64
people in the Far East, has spread to birds and
poultry Europe. At least
50 countries including the US, UK and Japan have
placed orders worth
$1.4bn (£810m) to prepare for a flu pandemic
experts say is inevitable.
The British Government has ordered 14.6 million
courses of Tamiflu at a
cost of £200m. Three million courses have been
delivered and the
remainder is due by September next year.
Japan is the only country with extensive
experience of Tamiflu. The drug
is routinely used by all sectors of the
population during the winter flu
season to shorten the duration of the illness,
reduce complications and
slow its spread. The Japanese health ministry
issued a warning in June
last year about psychological and neurological
disorders linked with
Tamiflu.
The European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA),
which licenses drugs in
the EU, said that it had asked Roche to follow
closely reports of
psychological disorders, delusional states and
abnormal behaviour linked
with the drug.
In the UK, Tamiflu has been little used since its
launch in 2003 and
there have been only 41 "yellow card" reports
linked with it of adverse
reactions, involving 161 separate side-effects.
One case was of
agitation and two were of "confusional state".
Under the yellow card
system doctors record symptoms that could be
linked with a drug. The
reports are intended to provide early warning of
possible problems.
In the UK, the side effects listed for Tamiflu
include nausea, fatigue,
insomnia, dizziness, rash and - rarely -
hepatitis and Stevens-Johnson
syndrome, a life-threatening condition in which
the skin blisters and
sloughs off.
The two Japanese boys who died in separate
accidents were reported to
have exhibited abnormal behaviour after taking
the drug. A high school
student of 17, who was at home alone, ran out of
his house and jumped
over a railing into the path of a lorry in
February 2004, shortly after
taking the medicine. In the second case, a
14-year-old apparently fell
from the ninth floor of his apartment building in
February 2005.
In a statement issued last night, the EMEA said
it had asked Roche to
"provide a cumulative safety review of all
available data on serious
psychiatric disorders, including all case reports
with a fatal outcome
where Tamiflu was involved".
