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First released in 1989, Permax is a drug developed by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly intended to treat the devastating and debilitating effects of the neurodegenerative Parkinson’s disease, and doctors discovered that Permax was an effective treatment for a condition called restless leg syndrome. Since 1989, 500,000 people have taken Permax, and sales of this drug have totaled more than $10 million.
There are allegedly a number of serious side effects associated with Permax. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2007, two European studies discovered that Permax use can cause potentially-fatal heart valve damage. One study conducted in Italy discovered that almost 25% of patients with Parkinson’s disease that took Permax developed moderate to severe heart-valve damage. Another study held in Germany found that Parkinson’s patients that took Permax were five to seven times more likely to suffer leaky heart valves than patients taking less-dangerous alternatives.
The Mayo Clinic cardiologists also reviewed the information about the link between heart damage and Permax. After extensive study, these doctors concluded that Permax causes heart valve damage and recommended that anyone with heart problems should never take any form of Permax or its generic form peroglide due to its propensity to cause potentially fatal injury. Furthermore, they determined that people should discontinue Permax if a patient develops heart valve damage and there are no other symptoms.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill concluded that the potential risks associated with Permax treatment are perhaps not worth the potential benefits it provides. The progression of drug-induced heart valve disease is, in the words of Dr. Bryan L. Roth, pharmacology professor at UNC, "… an extraordinarily high risk. It's a bad side effect. As far as I know, there are no medications that can reverse it." The only way to treat the valvular heart damage allegedly caused by Permax is expensive and dangerous heart valve replacement surgery.
The Food and Drug Administration demanded in late 2006 that Permax carry a black-box warning label in order to alert consumers about the potential risk of heart valve damage. The warning on box includes language that states: “Some patients have required valve replacement, and deaths have been reported."
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