Missouri Injury Attorney Blog

There is good reason why you are seeing so many TV ads from lawyers wanting to talk to those who might have taken Trasylol. Trasylol is a dangerous drug that was marketed with deceit in order to make profit for the drug company--the public pays the price. Death, kidney failure, stroke and other major health risk all result unnecessarily from Trasylol and those wondering if they or a family member was effected should contact a lawyer NOW to discuss their options.

On May 14, 2008, the FDA announced that Bayer has agreed to remove Trasylol stockpiles from the U.S. market including warehouses, hospitals and doctor offices.

David Payne is a Springfield Missouri area attorney that is taking Trasylol cases.

The maker of the recalled drug Trasylol, Bayer, previously planned to bring the drug back after the release of a major study they were relying on to provide positive data. However, they study did not turn out the way they were hoping. In November 2007, Bayer suspended sales of Trasylol (aprotinin) pending the outcome of a large Canadian clinical trial known as BART.

In October, because of ethical concerns BART had to be suspended early when data began showing a higher risk of death among patients on Trasylol, given during high-risk heart surgery. The Ottawa Health Research Institute stopped enrolling patients all together for this study.

Evidence supporting the stoppage of the study and BART’s results have been compiled and released in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This article confirms earlier findings that Trasylol led to an increase in the chance of death by 54 percent when compared to the other two drugs commonly used during heart surgery to cut down on excessive bleeding.

Of patients given Trasylol, six percent died within 30 days compared to patients on the standard and less expensive treatments!

Among those who died, the patients with complications including heart attacks after surgery was higher in the Trasylol group when compared to patients on the other two drugs.

The Canadian BART study involved 2,331 patients at 19 cardiac centers. Researchers conclude that while Trasylol was marginally effective, the risks do not outweigh the benefits.

Lead author, Paul Hébert, critical-care physician at the Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, says the drug should not be used for high-risk cardiac surgery patients. "This study could have been done by the company five to ten years ago." The part that really turns your stomach, the cost of Trasylol at $1,400 doesn’t compare to $4 for aminocaproic acid.It’s estimated 200,000 patients were given Trasylol in 2006 alone.

A renowned researcher calculates that 22,000 patients could have been saved if the Food and Drug Administration removed the heart surgery drug, Trasylol two years ago, when his study revealed patients on the drug double their risk of kidney failure, heart failure and had a 181 percent increase in the risk of stroke.

Dr. Dennis Mangano, tells 60 Minutes that Bayer, failed to tell the FDA about negative results of its own Trasylol study and that the company’s failure placed the drug’s success before patient well-being.

Mangano: "Good medicine demands that you protect the patient. That’s the issue here and not the drug and not the profit margin."

So far, there are 83 U.S. lawsuits filed against Bayer over Trasylol with attorney promising there are much more to follow.