A prescription medicine used to treat gout is suspected to have caused 10 deaths in the nation over the past eight years due to side effects that can sometimes be severe, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Colchicine, a strong anti-inflammatory that is widely used to treat gout, has been used in the nation for nearly 40 years and is one of the available options for the frontline treatment of people with gout.
A total of 17 colchicine products have been licensed by the FDA and about 38 million colchicine tablets are sold in the nation each year, the FDA said.
However, from 2011 to August this year, the FDA received 353 reports suggesting adverse reactions to the drug, mostly among patients with renal and liver dysfunction, with 10 deaths believed to be linked to the problem.
Serious side effects of colchicine include blood disease, muscle weakness and neuropathy, said Hung Kuo-teng (洪國登), head of the Medicinal Products Division.
People with renal or hepatic impairment and those who also take other drugs for chronic diseases could experience serious side effects from colchicine, Hung said.
Colchicine is used to relieve the pain and swelling of an acute gout episode and people who experience acute gout attacks usually take the drug for five to seven days.
People with frequent acute flare-ups or chronic gout tend to use it on a long-term basis, said Chen Ming-han (陳明翰), an attending physician at Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.
Because of the side effects, doctors tend to prescribe low-dose colchicine for people with renal or hepatic impairment, he said.
Two other medications for gout — benzbromarone and febuxostat — might also increase the risk of side effects, he said.
In Japan, Europe and the US, there have been reports of patients dying of renal failure after using benzbromarone, Chen said.
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