JANUVIA HAS NEW WARNING

medications-257370_640The newer diabetes medication Januvia was recently found to cause severe joint pains in a few patients (28 cases) and it made the news as a result.  The FDA came out with a warning about this association and concern that this may be seen more commonly as it is an unexpected side-effect not seen during the drug trials to confirm safety.

The FDA is very good and identifying dangerous issues with medications, but it is an imperfect process, and post-marketing monitoring is an essential part of the safety protocol for all new medications.  Given the unexpected nature of these side effects from medications, I tend to delay prescribing new medications for a few years, until the initial roll-out of the medication to the public, unless the particular circumstances for a patient dictates otherwise.  Being conservative in prescribing new medications is a simple measure that can be used to prevent unintended issues from developing when new medications are released.  In fact, the pharmaceutical representatives will often chide me for being willing to finally write their prescriptions 5-8 years after they have been released.

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