Leukine FDA Recall Alert

Leukemia, or cancer of the blood, is a painful, stressful and often fatal disease.  Estimates vary wildly, but it can safely be said that tens of thousands of people every year are diagnosed with some form of leukemia in the United States.  Clearly, research and development of drugs and therapeutic techniques designed to fight this public health scourge are priorities for several entities, and this research occurs on two fronts.

The first is the research that goes towards the treatment and prevention of the disease itself, for which billions of dollars is spent annually.  There are organizations of all types in existence whose sole purpose is to lead the fight against blood cancers, and while no cure has been discovered, progress is made regularly.

The second front is that which is dedicated to helping patients manage the fall-out that’s a natural result of the treatments that exist, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, which can be effective mechanisms to fight this disease, but which also lead to medical difficulties in many patients due to several complications.

Leukine Bayer AG

It’s the second effort that has drawn recent scrutiny, particularly for Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant that’s been manufacturing and marketing the drug Leukine, which has been used to help patients treat infections that are often the result of intense chemotherapy treatments and for those who have undergone a bone marrow transplant that’s been proven to be unsuccessful. 

The drug showed early success and promise, but recent reports by patients who have used it have led to the initiation of a recall by the manufacturer of Leukine from the American market, and the FDA is helping the manufacturer publicize this issue in several manners.  The reason for this recall is that Leukine is a medication that occurs in liquid form, and it seems that there is some sort of foreign substance present in these liquid vials that’s leading to a dangerous side effect.

This side effect is the tendency to suffer from fainting spells or blackouts, and many patients who’ve suffered through these episodes have been seriously injured as a result of the unexpected falls they’ve taken while using Leukine. 

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