Those Affected by Drugs denounce the concealments of the Medicines Agency about Nolotil

2023-12-02 14:08:04

The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) has been forced to respond with a statement to the media campaign unleashed by the lawsuit that has put the Association of People Affected by Drugs (ADAF) for the damages of the Nolotil drug (metamizol).

In that lawsuit, which manages our Almodóvar & Jara buffetwe ask Health to do its job of protecting the public health of the side effects, which can be fatal – as the AEMPS itself recognizes – of the medication.

As could be expected, since it always does the same thing, the Agency denies the majority and responds from the owner that it is not going to do anything: The AEMPS maintains the recommendations to prevent the risk of agranulocytosis

In its writing, the AEMPS says that

has carried out a new review on the relationship between metamizole and risk of agranulocytosis and has concluded that there are no new findings that change the safety profile.

Spanish Medicines Agency.

Consuelo Benitezone of those affected by Nolotil, in the TV program “And now Sonsoles”, on Antena 3.

If he had already done this new review, the matter is serious because he had not communicated it and has waited for the scandal to break out to do so (Their last communication is from October 2018!).

If what the AEMPS intends is to make us believe that this review was carried out between the Sunday that the controversy arose with the publication about Nolotil by the British newspaper The Guardianand on Friday he issued his informative note, then he takes the population for fools.

The Agency explains that the medication is “subject to medical prescription”, and it is true, but it is not fulfilled. ADAF has verified on different occasions that anyone can buy it in a pharmacy WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION (We encourage journalists who are interested in the case to check it out on site).

The institution that, in theory, is dedicated to pharmacovigilance, concluded in 2018 that

the number of cases reported in recent years had increased parallel to the increase in the consumption of this analgesic

Spanish Medicines Agency.

Sadly it has been like that, but the agency did NOT do anything else. And those responsible know perfectly well, because they have been warned in writing by ADAF during all these years, that the problem was serious and is increasing.

There is evidence from the former coordinator of the Autonomous Pharmacovigilance Center of the Valencian Community, who states that a local study in five health areas in Spain had found “surprisingly” that the British population had a metamizole susceptibility of the order of “80 to 120 times greater” than the Spanish one.

This report was delivered to the Spanish Medicines Agency but NOT publishednor has anything been done about it to protect that (and the entire) population.

The institution dependent on Health emphasizes the problem that the British and northern European population has with metamizole, as if the same did not happen with Spanish citizens. ADAF can document dozens of cases of damages suffered by the Spanish population.

The AEMPS says it has carried out an evaluation of the new information available since then. And for this

has analyzed the evolution of metamizole consumption, the data on spontaneous notification of cases of agranulocytosis and the scientific literature published in this period.

Spanish Medicines Agency.

We do not doubt that it is true but it is evident that he has not had the cases that ADAF has registered. This association has NEVER received any request from the agency to know the data we are considering. So their conclusions can hardly be credible.

The public entity concludes that “there are no new findings that change the agranulocytosis risk profile already known for metamizole.” The truth is that they do exist, but we insist: He doesn’t want to see them.

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