The Spanish Health Ministry finances a cancer drug withdrawn in the United States

2023-12-12 14:35:29

Spain has just incorporated a new public health system cancer treatment what The United States has recalled. Is called Blenrepwas approved in 2020 on an accelerated basis and offers important side effects.

This medication is subject to additional monitoring, that is, since it is new, it is not known what damage it may cause and it must be monitored. So take the black triangle that marks it as “under observation” due to the possibility that, during its use, new information about its security (or rather about the lack thereof).

Blenrep is an antibody conjugate. Stay with that because if we add the rest we laymen are left the same (contains belantamab, a humanized afucosylated IgG1k monoclonal antibody specific for B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) produced using genetic recombination technology in a mammalian cell line – ovary of Chinese hamster- conjugated with maleimidocaproyl monomethyl auristatin F).

In simpler terms, the active ingredient of the drug is connected to an anti-cancer substance that can kill multiple myeloma cells. He monoclonal antibody is a protein designed to find multiple myeloma cells in your body and attach to them.

Once attached to cancer cells, the anticancer substance is released and kills cancer cells. Blenrep is used to treat adults who have bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma.

Photo by Thirdman.

The safety of this medication was evaluated in only 95 patients and the most frequent adverse reactions were keratopathy -any disease, alteration or anomaly that affects the cornea, which is the transparent and front part of the eye- (71%) and thrombocytopenia -a condition that appears when the blood platelet count is too low- (38%).

The most frequently reported serious adverse reactions were pneumonia (7%) y pirexia (7%). 9% of patients who received Blenrep permanently suspended treatment due to an adverse reaction, 3% were related to eye damage (in fact you should get an eye exam by a ophthalmologist before starting treatment).

As with almost all drugs, in its prospect Please note that it should not be used if you are allergic to any of the components. Of course, the average person does not know if they are allergic to substances they have never heard of (it is already difficult to know if you have sensitivity to known substances…).

And doctors don’t know either, if specific tests are not done, it is impossible.

Well, for example, one component of this new drug is the one widely used in pharmacies. Polysorbate 80. This active ingredient can be toxic and even cause the death of those who take it. I tell and document it in this post:

Abrysvo, the vaccine for Respiratory Syncytial Virus that is promoted without its efficacy and safety being well demonstrated

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will decide at the beginning of next year, 2024, the future of the drug Blenrep in Europe, but has been proposing the withdrawal of this product from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for some time now.

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