Volume 3

Interagency coordination in drug research and regulation : hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Eighty-eighth Congress, first session. Agency coordination study, pursuant to S. Res. 27, 88th Cong. Review of cooperation on drug policies among Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Veterans' Administration, and other agencies. Mar. 20-June 26, 1963.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations

Date:: 1963

Credit: Interagency coordination in drug research and regulation : hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Eighty-eighth Congress, first session. Agency coordination study, pursuant to S. Res. 27, 88th Cong. Review of cooperation on drug policies among Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Veterans' Administration, and other agencies. Mar. 20-June 26, 1963. Source: Wellcome Collection.

476/504 page 1242

I am a victim of one of these drugs. I recently underwent surgery for cata- racts on both eyes as the result of taking MER/29, and am now forced to wear heavy cataract glasses and have no peripheral vision. As you know, doctors and pharmacists were not warned of the possible dangerous side effects of MER/29 until December of 1961, but the drug was not taken off the market until several months later—I believe in March or April. I had been taking MER/29 since June 1960. * * * * * * * Thanks—and keep up the good work. Very truly yours, DrAR SENATOR HUMPHREY: I have just finished reading Morton Mintz’ article ‘New Drugs: Is Government Supervision Adequate?” in the March 28 Reporter and I want to express to you my gratitude for what you are trying to do. Hight years ago my doctor prescribed the tranquilizing drug Thorazine, manufactured by Smith Kline and French. Within less than two weeks it had caused hepatitis. My doctor, who has since died, never did tell me what had caused my hepatitis, and I might easily have returned to the drug in ignorance, except that I read an article in Newsweek that told of Thorazine’s possible side effects. Fortunately, the experience does not seem to have left any ill effects behind, but that does not excuse such a drug being placed on the market. It seems to me that if the Commissioner of the FDA will not carry out the law he should step down and let someone who will take over. Certainly it seems to me that the head of this department should be trained in some phase of medical science. My best wishes to you, and I hope you can help to tighten up at least enforce. ment, if not the law itself. Sincerely yours, [Name withheld.] Santa Monica, March 29, 1963. DEAR Sir: You are now investigating dangerous drugs that have been on the market only 6 months. This is my HERON experience with a dangerous drug that has been on the market for years. A Santa Monica physician protcripey Compazine, a drug for stomach upset and nausea, for my 10-year-old son. Symptoms began to appear after my son had taken the medicine. His eyes became fixed in his head. He couldn’t move them. His facial muscles became rigid. His body began to twist and pull until he had no control whatever. He was rushed by ambulance to the Los Angeles County Hospital (March 8, 1963) where eight doctors diagnosed the correct cause as Compazine. They gave him a shot to counteract the medicine and saved his life. I assumed that my son was that 1 person in 1,000 allergic to the medicine. But now I find that Time magazine warned against Compazine and other atacaxics built around phenothiazine molecule as long ago as October 27, 1958. Time said that these tranquilizers (Thorazine, Compazine, Sparine, Pacatal) are so potent that they may cause undesired side effects of which one of the commonest is Parkinsonism with rigidity, tremor, pill-rolling motion of the hand, disturbances of all movements, and drooling, and symptoms may persist 2 or 3 months after medicine is stopped. Thorazine can also cause severe liver damage—sometimes fatal. I ask you to help make this fact known so that parents may become aware of the harmful effects of these drugs. An investigation should be made and if possible these dangerous drugs removed from the market. Sincerely, [Name withheld. ] A a ee

Licence and re-use

Contents

Volumes