Drugs withdrawn in the USA had greater health risk for women, says GAO study

The USA's General Accounting Office was requested by the Senate toidentify drug products withdrawn from the US market since January 1, 1997, and evaluate which posed greater health risks for women than for men. The GAO has now completed its work, and says it has found 10 prescription drugs taken off the market since that date, eight of which posed greater risks for women.

Four of these may have led to adverse events in women because they were prescribed more often to them than to men, while the other four had more adverse events in women even though they were widely prescribed to both men and women. Of the two remaining withdrawn drugs, one belongs to a class of drugs known to pose a greater health risk for females, but the GAO said it was unable to find direct evidence that the adverse events that contributed to its withdrawal occurred predominantly in women.

The GAO report notes that the appetite suppressants Pondimin and Redux (see table below) were withdrawn from the US market because they caused valvular heart disease in some patients. Although the majority of the reported cases were in women, most of the users were females, so the apparent gender-related effects could be a reflection of the products' usage patterns.