Adverse Drug Events and the Freedom of Information Act: An Apple in Eden

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Stang ◽  
Janet L. Fox ◽  
Abraham G. Hartzema ◽  
Miquel S. Porta ◽  
Hugh H. Tilson

OBJECTIVE: To review some of the abuses and proper uses of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) spontaneous adverse-reaction reporting system, as a way of educating the reader to its strengths and limitations. DATA SOURCE: Published literature and reports based on information obtained from the FDA's database of spontaneous adverse drug-event reports. DATA SYNTHESIS: The Freedom of Information Act has increased public access to the FDA's database of spontaneous adverse drug reaction reports. As these reports are voluntarily received and reported to the FDA, their use for comparisons of drug safety is severely limited. Despite these limitations and the FDA's caveats for use of these data, consumer advocacy groups, researchers, and various pharmaceutical marketing groups have used this source to project the incidence of adverse drug reactions. CONCLUSIONS: The FDA's spontaneous adverse-event reporting system is designed to generate signals of unexpected adverse drug events. Use of the data gathered by this system to make drug safety comparisons is beyond their credible scope because many factors influence the reporting of adverse events. Researchers and peer reviewers should place these data in the proper perspective and support sound research into questions of drug safety.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Guo ◽  
Shaojun Duan ◽  
Yaxi Liu ◽  
Yinxia Yuan

BACKGROUND In the emergency situation of COVID-19, off-label therapies and newly developed vaccines may bring the patients adverse drug event (ADE) risks. Data mining based on spontaneous reporting systems (SRSs) is a promising and efficient way to detect potential ADEs so as to help health professionals and patients get rid of these risks. OBJECTIVE This pharmacovigilance study aimed to investigate the ADEs of “Hot Drugs” in COVID-19 prevention and treatment based on the data of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adverse event reporting system (FAERS). METHODS FAERS ADE reports associated with COVID-19 from the 2nd quarter of 2020 to the 2nd quarter of 2021 were retrieved with “Hot Drugs” and frequent ADEs recognized. A combination of support, proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and Chi-square (2) test was applied to detect significant “Hot Drug” & ADE signals by Python programming language on Jupyter notebook. RESULTS 13,178 COVID-19 cases were retrieved with 18 “Hot Drugs” and 312 frequent ADEs on “Preferred Term” (PT) level. 18  312 = 5,616 “Drug & ADE” candidates were formed for further data mining. The algorithm finally produced 219 significant ADE signals associated with 17 “Hot Drugs”and 124 ADEs.Some unexpected ADE signals were observed for chloroquine, ritonavir, tocilizumab, Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. CONCLUSIONS Data mining is a promising and efficient way to assist pharmacovigilance work and the result of this paper could help timely recognize ADEs in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 233339282110689
Author(s):  
Christina A. Cirucci ◽  
Kathi A. Aultman ◽  
Donna J. Harrison

Background As part of the accelerated approval of mifepristone as an abortifacient in 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required prescribers to report all serious adverse events (AEs) to the manufacturer who was required to report them to the FDA. This information is included in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and is available to the public online. The actual Adverse Event Reports (AERs) can be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Methods We compared the number of specific AEs and total AERs for mifepristone abortions from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010 from 1. Planned Parenthood abortion data published by Cleland et al. 2. FAERS online dashboard, and 3. AERs provided through FOIA and analyzed by Aultman et al. Results Cleland identified 1530 Planned Parenthood mifepristone cases with specific AEs for 2009 and 2010. For this period, FAERS online dashboard includes a total (from all providers) of only 664, and the FDA released only 330 AERs through FOIA. Cleland identified 1158 ongoing pregnancies in 2009 and 2010. FAERs dashboard contains only 95, and only 39 were released via FOIA. Conclusions There are significant discrepancies in the total number of AERs and specific AEs for 2009 and 2010 mifepristone abortions reported in 1. Cleland's documentation of Planned Parenthood AEs, 2. FAERS dashboard, and 3. AERs provided through FOIA. These discrepancies render the FAERS inadequate to evaluate the safety of mifepristone abortions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 3202
Author(s):  
Jae-Woo Ju ◽  
Nayoung Kim ◽  
Seong Mi Yang ◽  
Won Ho Kim ◽  
Ho-Jin Lee

We aimed to investigate the incidence of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis in a large Korean population. We retrospectively investigated the incidence of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis between 2013 and 2019 from the database of the Korea Institute of Drug Safety-Risk Management-Korea Adverse Event Reporting System (KIDS-KAERS). We estimated the incidence of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis from the KIDS-KAERS database, assuming that the reporting efficiency was 10%, 50%, and 100%, respectively. We also investigated its annual sales volume in Korea and assumed that the exposure to sugammadex was 95% of the estimated sales volume. During the study period, 1,401,630 sugammadex vials were sold, and 19 cases of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis were identified in the KIDS-KAERS database. The estimated incidence of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis was 0.0143%, 0.00279%, and 0.0014%, assuming a reporting efficiency of 10%, 50%, and 100%, respectively. All patients, except for one with a missing record, fully recovered after anaphylaxis. The incidence of sugammadex-induced anaphylaxis identified in the national pharmacovigilance database was lower than previously reported rates in other countries. Therefore, its use in general anesthesia should not be hindered by concerns about the resulting risk of anaphylaxis in Korea.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S662-S662
Author(s):  
Taylor M Patek ◽  
Chengwen Teng ◽  
Kaitlin E Kennedy ◽  
Christopher R Frei

Abstract Background A recent article published in 2018 studied the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and listed the most common medications associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) based on number of AKI reports. In regards to antibiotics, the study only ranked vancomycin, fluoroquinolones, penicillin combinations, and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole as having a significant association with AKI. The objective of this study was to evaluate those and additional antibiotic classes using FAERS, and to compare their risk associated with this adverse drug event. Methods FAERS reports from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017 were included in the study. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) was used to identify AKI cases. Reporting Odds Ratios (RORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the association between antibiotics and AKI were calculated. An association was considered statistically significant when the lower limit of the 95% CI was greater than 1.0. Results A total of 2,042,801 reports (including 20,138 acute kidney injury reports) were considered, after inclusion criteria were applied. Colistin had the greatest proportion of AKI reports, representing 25% of all colistin reports. Acute kidney injury RORs (95% CI) for antibiotics were (in descending order): colistin 33.10 (21.24–51.56), aminoglycosides 17.41 (14.49–20.90), vancomycin 15.28 (13.82–16.90), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole 13.72 (11.94–15.76), penicillin combinations 7.95 (7.09–8.91), clindamycin 6.46 (5.18–8.04), cephalosporins 6.07 (5.23–7.05), daptomycin 6.07 (4.61–7.99), macrolides 3.60 (3.04–4.26), linezolid 3.48 (2.54–4.77), carbapenems 3.31 (2.58–4.25), metronidazole 2.55 (1.94–3.36), tetracyclines 1.73 (1.26–2.36), and fluoroquinolones 1.71 (1.49–1.97). Conclusion This study found 17 classes of antibiotics and combinations that were significantly associated with AKI compared with four antibiotics that were mentioned in a recently published article looking at drug-associated AKI. While this study confirmed previous literature of certain antibiotics associated with increased risk of AKI, it also compared antibiotics within classes and provided additional insight regarding which antibiotics had the highest associated risk of an AKI. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 1534-1540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Steadman ◽  
Dennis W. Raisch ◽  
Charles L. Bennett ◽  
John S. Esterly ◽  
Tischa Becker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In April 2009, the FDA retracted a warning asserting that ceftriaxone and intravenous calcium products should not be coadministered to any patient to prevent precipitation events leading to end-organ damage. Following that announcement, we sought to evaluate if the retraction was justified. A search of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System was conducted to identify any ceftriaxone-calcium interactions that resulted in serious adverse drug events. Ceftazidime-calcium was used as a comparator agent. One hundred four events with ceftriaxone-calcium and 99 events with ceftazidime-calcium were identified. Adverse drug events were recorded according to the listed description of drug involvement (primary or secondary suspect) and were interpreted as probable, possible, unlikely, or unrelated. For ceftriaxone-calcium-related adverse events, 7.7% and 20.2% of the events were classified as probable and possible for embolism, respectively. Ceftazidime-calcium resulted in fewer probable embolic events (4%) but more possible embolic events (30.3%). Among cases that considered ceftriaxone or ceftazidime and calcium as the primary or secondary drug, one case was classified as a probable embolic event. That patient received ceftriaxone-calcium and died, although an attribution of causality was not possible. Our analysis suggests a lack of support for the occurrence of ceftriaxone-calcium precipitation events in adults. The results of the current analysis reinforce the revised FDA recommendations suggesting that patients >28 days old may receive ceftriaxone and calcium sequentially and provide a transparent and reproducible methodology for such evaluations.


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