Originally published October 25 2005
Consumer group pushes for warnings to be placed on Viagra labels
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Advocate group Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to require black-box warnings for potential blindness on the labels of Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and Revatio.
A prominent consumer advocacy group is calling for the government to add the most serious of warnings to the labels of Viagra and other impotence drugs, noting that some users have gone blind.
Public Citizen on Thursday petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to add black-box warnings to the labels of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, as well as the hypertension drug Revatio, which is similar to Viagra.
A small number of people taking the impotence drugs have developed NAION, or non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy, a loss of vision that is often irreversible.
NAION is considered one of the most common causes of sudden vision loss in older people, with anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 cases a year.
The warnings noted that some users have suffered vision loss but cautioned it was impossible to know whether the pills are to blame.
Public Citizen, however, used FDA data to compare the rates of people who developed NAION while on the impotence drugs with those who were taking Lipitor, the cholesterol drug that is used by people with the same risk factors.
The group found the number of reports of the condition per million prescriptions was 18 times higher for patients taking Viagra and 25 times higher for Cialis compared to Lipitor.
Public Citizen found an additional 50 cases of other visual problems among Viagra patients, the group said in its petition.
Vision problems reported among those taking Cialis and Levitra number 12 -- including only two NAION cases, both in Cialis users, according to Public Citizen.
''It is the Food and Drug Administration's job to immediately and coherently tell consumers about the risks associated with the drugs they put into their bodies,'' said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.
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