Disastrous Drug Trial Hospitalizes Six Men - Catastrophic Inflamation of Internal Organs

This sounds really, really bad.

edition.cnn.com...

Two men are in critical condition in a London hospital and four others are in serious condition after taking part in a clinical trial for a new drug.

One victim, whose head and neck were reported to have increased to three times normal size, was described by a friend as resembling "the Elephant Man."

The men were admitted late Monday to the intensive care unit from an independent medical research unit at Northwick Park Hospital after reacting badly to the drug, which is intended to treat chronic inflammatory conditions and leukemia.

Pretty horrible to think about.

How often does this happen? Do we even hear about it when it happens on this side of the pond? Or do the drug companies pay off the victims and control their access to the press?

What I found amazing is that this was supposed to be an anti-inflamatory. So what went wrong, how did it end up backfiring and causing such catastrophic results?

Wierd, in any case, so I thought I'd bring it to ATS. Also, one of the victims' family members made a comment about the medication destroying the immune system, so I figured there would be some folks interested in that aspect of the story.




[edit on 15-3-2006 by WyrdeOne]

[edit on 31-7-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Interesting that none of these side effects showed up in animal testing. You can get a paradoxical reaction to drug and they may act in the opposite way. bendryl is one such drug whee some will become hyper rather than sedate etc.

As bad as this, what's worse is all the doctors who refuse to note, let alone record and report, side effects and adverse reactions their patients complain of, then when horror stories spread by word of mouth they simply claim there is no 'evidence', and 'anecdotes' doesn't count.

I've had repeat scripts for drugs that caused seisures and worse because the doctors wouldn't 'bad mouth' these 'wonder drugs' despite my repeatedly demanding and being promised they would be flagged in my files.

What's even worse still, is that I endured years of bad drugs in an attempt to the 'fix' the problems caused by a drug for a mis-diagnosed cancer.

And these are the people most 'worship' and who now decide if a baby's life is 'worth' living....AAAHHHH!

You're absolutely right. Your experience with a handful of poor doctors totally invalidates all doctor's abilities every where and forever.

*Sarcasm off*

Sheesh, some people.

~MFP

Originally posted by bsl4doc
You're absolutely right. Your experience with a handful of poor doctors totally invalidates all doctor's abilities every where and forever.

*Sarcasm off*

Sheesh, some people.

~MFP

For starters my many experiences over many years, along with sibling nurses who had to deal with these many 'mistakes', lead me to finding many others with the same types of experiences.

It's the drug companies that I have the biggest problem with as they don't tell doctors everything they could expect drugs to cause so when patients complain about side effects they don't expect, they look for other causes, which saddly often leads to more harmfull drugs.

It's you who condemns every opinion of those who dare to disagree with ANY of your. I just don't see the need to sprook for the industry of drugs as they do far too good job of it as it is.

I don't know what's so bad about sharing the other side of 'medicine' when you so keenly come on tell everyone it's all, all good.

We will have to wait and see what has gone wrong here before we can pass too much in the way of comment. The private sector company that was conducting these trials has an excellent reputation here in the UK, and works closely with the National Health Service to bring new drugs on-line.

Without drug testing we don't get any new drugs. That's a simple fact.

Although this type of reaction is massively rare, there is always a risk that something terrible might happen. This is why drugs need to be tested before they are handed out all over the place. Lets also remember that the people signing up to the tests will have been warned and will have signed lots of papers saying "I am aware that my head might explode" or something along those lines.

Originally posted by suzy ryan
It's you who condemns every opinion of those who dare to disagree with ANY of your. I just don't see the need to sprook for the industry of drugs as they do far too good job of it as it is.

I don't know what's so bad about sharing the other side of 'medicine' when you so keenly come on tell everyone it's all, all good.

So, THIS qualifies as an innocent "sharing of opinion":

And these are the people most 'worship' and who now decide if a baby's life is 'worth' living....AAAHHHH!

Sounds like a condemning statement about medical professionals to me. Oh wait, you accused me of condemning people like you, so, I guess that makes you a hypocrit, huh?

~MFP

Two men are in critical condition in a London hospital and four others are in serious condition...

Eight men had all volunteered to take part in the trial. Two were given a placebo and were unharmed.

...the drug, TGN1412, was an antibody developed by TeGenero of Wuerzburg, Germany.

We are talking 100% negative response here.

How did this happen?






MORE:

TGN1412 bypasses the requirement for TCR signalling and activates T cells regardless of their TCR specificity.

TGN1412 is far advanced in pre-clinical development. It has shown unique ex vivo and in vivo T lymphocyte activating capacity and great therapeutic potential for a number of autoimmune/inflammatory and oncological diseases.

(Especially)
B cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL)
rheumatoid arthritis

www.biocom.de...

Something is stinky here - supposedly the guys being tested weren't even sick. ...!?

.

[edit on 16-3-2006 by soficrow]

Is like everything in our multi billion dollar that the pharmaceutical and medical business is now a days.

Trying to hurry up new drugs to make more profits and testing without first making sure that the drugs are even safe to be tested to Begin with.

Susy Ryan I know exactly what you must have been through, I was given a treatment because I was also misdiagnosed, but I demanded a second opinion.

I changed doctors when I felt that something was wrong and he didn't wanted to listen to me, at least I am one of the lucky ones that can afford to do that.

My mother also was up to 9 different drugs a day because one half of the drugs were to diminish the side effects of the other drugs.

Funny how much our medical empire get away with now a days.

Ta Marg, I'm glad you could understand my point.

I also changed doctors but they would all insist on my file from previous doctors and then proceed to follow their scant and inaccurate notes rather than listen to me.

The whole, 'doctors covering other doctors assess'.

Back onto the conspiracy thing, I developed a good relationship with one doctor who liked me enough to tell me he "can't" help me, due to him being in 'debt' to corrupt 'brothers' of respected society who I'd 'upset', then when I'd found another doctor who was 'good', he became nasty and prescibed a drug that nearly killed me before, AFTER he got the file that did have a big bold warning against me having it.

Luckily I checked it was the same drug of another brand and didn't take it.

I won't write off anyone of any group, class, religion, etc. but likewise I won't automatically trust anyone to be a saint just because of the 'positive' reputation of their standing.

Doctors do kill people. Usually by accident, overwork etc. but some, sometimes as 'favours' for 'others' who find you 'inconveniant'.

bsl4doc, the best you could answer my points (on any thread) was to call me a hypocrit for a line expressing my frustration with your inability to address my points. Just because I can admit people like you 'worship' doctors, doesn't mean (as I've often stated) that I condemn all doctors or their worshipers.

It's your sort of attitude that lets people like "Doctor Death" keep practicing after many whistleblowers have provided evidence against them. This Dr. Patel (?) from India, killed a number of people in a Queensland hospital, but after it finally got too hot, he was shipped off to the U.S.A. before charges could be laid, where he was then charged with killing a boy.

Sorry I can't remember many details of the case as it really did upset me too much for my brain to retain.

When society as a whole can become as wary of doctors as they've learned to be of priests, we will all, including good doctors, be much safer.

Having a medical title does not automatically make you more moral, kind, wise or brave than anyone else, infact the industry does actualy attract sadists, intelligent enough to to be weeded out in trainning, as well as altruists.

P.S. I heard on this mornings news that even much loved, rich and famous, John Ritter was killed by the hospital that mis-diagnosed and mis-treated him in the States and his wife has settled with the hospital, so we'll never know the full nitty gritty.

[edit on 16-3-2006 by suzy ryan]

Originally posted by FredT
Interesting that none of these side effects showed up in animal testing. You can get a paradoxical reaction to drug and they may act in the opposite way. bendryl is one such drug whee some will become hyper rather than sedate etc.

Good point, bendryl wires me up big time, its almost like taking speed for me yet it damn near knocks my wife out cold.

An update on this story...

www.timesonline.co.uk...

The men had been told by doctors they would not suffer any life-threatening illnesses.

Nav Modi, 24, whose bloated face and swollen chest led to the nickname “Elephant Man”, said he did not know how long he would live.

“It’s a really bizarre feeling when you discover you might be dead in a couple of years or even in a couple of months,” he said. “I feel like I’ve given away my life for £2,000.”

The survivors are now facing additional complications. They are pondering a lawsuit, but the drug company that organized the trial denies any wrongdoing, so I suppose a settlement is out of the question.

I'm sure these folks got their medical bills paid, but you'd think the company responsible would toss them a few million in order for them to enjoy the little time they have left on this earth.

Wow, I'm glad you brought this back up. I was thinking about them last week and was looking for this thread. Those poor men, they have been in my prayers.

Thanks!

.

The Times article says the tests were "bungled" - but the drug, TGN1412, puts the immune system in overdrive, which is something you do NOT want to do in today's prion-contaminated world. ...Prions use the immune system to spread through the body; no responsible scientist would bump up any patient's immunity without extensive testing for different prion strains.

Originally posted by FredT
Interesting that none of these side effects showed up in animal testing.

Were there even animal tests done or did this go straight to the human population? I see no mention of naimal testing and isn't it curious that the tet group was so small? Almost like they were teting a WMD, not a drug.

I say next time they only need to tet such a small group of people with such (doesn't it appear) caution and concerns (due to the small number) how bought the Drs. involved are the test subjects?

The drug co. will win. They prey upon everyone's desire for eternity through RX.
Everyone will question, then think when there time is near they'd rather reach for a bottle to eek a little more time in this world.

DOesnt surprise me..200 years ago the best doctors on the planet thought the best way to cure the sick was to take out half their blood..... I dont think we've come to far from there. Besides doctors dont know what they are doing, its all guesswork with a degree.

Just guess work with a degree, hmmmmmm. Same can be said for any profession if you want, just that these people with the degrees and years of studying something specific might just make a better guess than you.

Also the suggestion that making the doctors the test subjects is just daft, there are hundreds of these trials that take place every year, they were paid for them, that was why they did it, they were not forced into it, hell i even did one when i was at uni, did it for the cash.

Now if you live in britain we have a show called richard and judy, the guy who was most seriously affected was on monday evenings show, apparently after they thought they were all clear they may be now predisposed to getting cancers etc later in life.

This is horrible and should not happen to anyone, however he chose to take the risk for £2000, I just think he was incredibly unlucky, as were the other guys involved.