Study reveals 6,225 deaths due the effects of Paxil, Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Clozaril.

Recently a study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine regarding "Serious Adverse Drug Events Reported to the Food and Drug Administration, 1998-2005".

The abstract reports that

From 1998 through 2005, reported serious adverse drug events increased 2.6-fold from 34 966 to 89 842, and fatal adverse drug events increased 2.7-fold from 5,519 to 15,107. Reported serious events increased 4 times faster than the total number of outpatient prescriptions during the period. [...]

For 13 new biotechnology products, reported serious events grew 15.8-fold, from 580 reported in 1998 to 9181 in 2005. The increase was influenced by relatively few drugs: 298 of the 1489 drugs identified (20%) accounted for 407,394 of the 467,809 events (87%)

This is alarming in itself. But then, if you get to read the actual report, there's more. As noted by the Furious Seasons weblog (who managed to get a copy of the study and put it online) there is more damaging information in the report:

What the media failed to report is that Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Clozaril, three atypical antipsychotics, and Paxil, an SSRI anti-depressant, were tied to the deaths of 6,225 Americans from 1998 to 2005. These numbers are shocking and far outpace estimates I've run into previously. That this data was not reported by the media is inexcusable, given the millions of Americans--and others around the world--who take these four drugs.

[...]

Since news broke around Zyprexa last year and accusations that its maker, Eli Lilly, had downplayed and covered up known injuries caused by the drug, the media has not provided an accounting of how many people died as a result of taking the drug. For my part, I downplayed the numbers I ran across in press accounts and in the Zyprexa documents. I didn't want to cast false aspersions.

But, now, I can say this:

• Eli Lilly, your drug killed 1,005 Americans.
• And, Janssen/J&J: your drug killed 1,093 Americans.
• GSK and makers of generic Paxil: you guys make a drug that killed 850 Americans.
• As for Novartis, makers of Clozaril, and whomever makes its generic form: you asshats killed 3,277 Americans.

The doctors who prescribed these drugs are just as responsible, ethically if not legally.

And I have a question for you guys: How's it feel?

Excepting Paxil, each of these drugs killed more people than Vioxx, which claimed 932 lives, according to the study. Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004, following intense publicity around its association with heart attacks. Some estimates of deaths related to Vioxx go as high as 55,000 deaths, but I don't know how solid those numbers are.

So why is it that the New York Times was virtually alone in reporting on Lilly's attempts to downplay problems with Zyprexa and accusations that it marketed the drug off-label? The documents were in the hands of NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post--and yet these media giants remained largely silent. Wimps.

We can only agree with the sentiment