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What Should the Prescriber Do?

Jere E. Goyan, PhD

JAMA. 1993;270(16):1976-1977.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In this issue of THE JOURNAL, Ross-Degnan et al¹ present a fascinating analysis of the effect of the withdrawal of zomepirac sodium from the market. They note that zomepirac prescribers, faced with withdrawal of the drug from the market, switched, not only to other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, but surprisingly to propoxyphene (hydrochloride or napsylate) and barbiturate-containing analgesics. These drugs carry risks that arguably are as serious as those of zomepirac. Based on those findings, they suggest that the risks posed by substituted products be considered before making a decision to withdraw a drug from the market.

Although an appealing theoretical concept, it seems unlikely that such a suggestion is of any practicable use. To understand the basis for this statement, it may be instructive to review the bases on which drugs have been withdrawn from the American marketplace in the past 30 years.

The largest number of drug products . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From Alteon Inc, Northvale, NJ.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Alteon Inc, 165 Ludlow Ave, Northvale, NJ 07647 (Dr Goyan).

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