Europe Concerned About Orlaam
May 14, 2001
The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EAEM) recently announced that the drug Orlaam may be responsible for 10 new cases of life threatening heart rhythm disorders. These 10 cases all involved young patients who were taking Orlaam to treat their addictions to heroin.
Due to this new information, the EAEM has instructed doctors not to prescribe Orlaam until further studies have been conducted. Previously, Orlaam has been used to treat adult patients taking methadone who are addicted to opiates such as heroin.
Orlaam, a drug marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim and its subsidiaries, can be found in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, and Spain.
The fact that all 10 of the reported cases occurred in teenagers causes great concern for the EAEM. "This raises a major concern given the fact that these life-threatening cases occurred in young patients. . .a population at low risk of developing these cardiac disorders, and given the relatively low exposure to the product. Furthermore, these cardiac disorders might have been under-recognized or under-reported."
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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