More Studies Link Heart Drug to Deaths
Two more studies in the United States found that the heart drug, Trasydol, is dangerous. The studies showed that heart surgery patients were more likely to die if they were given this anti-bleeding drug by Bayer.
Trasydol is used to control bleeding during heart surgery, but reports say that it may have killed tens of thousands of cardiac patients. Bayer funded one of the two new studies, and had the preliminary results before a September 2006 federal hearing on the drug’s safety — but did not present them.
The company is saying that the studies are flawed but consumer advocacy groups aren’t buying it. They feel the studies confirm that the drug is dangerous.
The first study took into consideration more than 10,000 patients who had heart bypass surgery from 1996 - 2005.
Results showed that 6.4 percent of patients who were given Trasylol died within 30 days of the surgery, a rate nearly 2½ times higher than patients who got another drug or who received no treatment for excessive bleeding. At one year after surgery, almost 16 percent of Trasylol patients had died — again, roughly 2½ times higher than the other two patient groups.
The second study funded by Bayer took into consideration more than 78,000 patients nationally from Jan. 2003 - March 2006. The researchers found the risk of death after surgery was 64 percent higher in the Trasylol group than in those taking a comparison drug.
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