The Health Department must immediately act on reports by patients with severe adverse effects after taking their newly formulated (GE) thyroid medication.
In the last year Pharmaceutical companies have reformulated their thyroid medication with a recombinant (GE) thyroxin active ingredient Levothyroxine. They have stated that there should be no problem as it is identical to naturally produced version. They did not tell patients that they were using a recombinant version and believe that the symptoms being reported by patients are not related to the change.
But the new formulation is not the same. The new formulation contains the recombinant, genetically engineered form of thyroxin, with the potential for unexpected side-effects.
Adverse effects include chronic fatigue; weakness; blurred vision; headaches / migraines; giddy head - feeling shaky; throat soreness; numbness in parts of the body; nausea on an empty stomach; insomnia; heart palpitations; kidney spasm; back pain; sore tail bone; joint and body aches; urinary pain; chest pain; excessive weight gain; lack of energy; depression; dry skin; itching skin and serious acne. These symptoms indicate patients' immune systems are under attack.
In 2006 a GE drug caused immune system shut-down, organ failure and the loss of fingers and toes from gangrene and cancer. TGN1412 made by Tegenero AG is called a �superagonist� and was engineered to stimulate immune cell response, intended to help treat leukemia and auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
One of the affected volunteers is quoted in the UK Sun as saying �An hour after the drug entered my body I was suddenly gripped by pain I can barely begin to describe. I felt my head swelling up like an elephant�s. I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out.�
�It is absolutely criminal to dismiss the effects out of hand, without considering if it is an immune reaction to GE medicines� said Claire Bleakley �There have been serious problems with GE (recombinant) medicines, most recently when six healthy people took an GE arthritis drug made by TeGenero with near fatal results.�
The Health Department and Pharmac must immediately withdraw all products containing recombinant Levothyroxine and investigate further before we have a death.
ENDS:
Claire Bleakley (06) 3089842 / 027 348 6731
References:
Eltroxin � www.pharmalivesearch.com/EUISearch.do?q=Levothyroxine+(synthroid)&qgeneral=Levothyroxine+(synthroid)
Synthroid � http://www.drugs.com/pro/synthroid.html
Drug test victim�s hell. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article43221.ece
Catastrophic immune response may have caused drug trial horror
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8863-catastrophic-immune-response-may-have-caused-drug-trial-horror.html
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