Zostavax: The nightmare shingles vaccine made hundreds sick
By May 2018, Zostavax victims had filed “60 federal lawsuits” against Merck, the drug company that makes the vaccine. They didn’t know when they took it to prevent shingles it had serious side effects. Zostavax can cause neurological disorders, blindness, strokes, heart problems, pneumonia and even death. It can also cause shingles. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Zostavax in 2006. In 2016, Merck finally admitted Zostavax could cause eye damage and shingles.
Why did the FDA approve Zostavax?
The FDA doesn’t always know about the side effects of a drug. It doesn’t conduct clinical trials on drugs that pharmaceutical companies submit for approval. The companies conduct the trials and they don’t always submit all the results to the FDA. In 2014, Newsweek investigated the practice. The magazine found that concealing trial data is “routine.” Its investigation revealed a “significant amount of negative data” from clinical trials is hidden from the public.
Tamiflu is an example. When the “unpublished trials” about the vaccine finally did emerge, they cast doubt on its effectiveness. They also hid a rare side effect, suicidal paranoia. By then, it had caused a number of deaths. An NPR investigative report in 2017 quoted medical experts at the Yale University School of Medicine who said the FDA’s system for complaints after drugs and medical devices are on the market, was “voluntary, underutilized and filled with incomplete and late information.”
They also told NPR that “nearly a third of the drugs the FDA approved from 2001 through 2010 had major safety issues” that were only discovered “after the medications were made widely available to patients.” Scientific American reported in 2017 that “approximately half” of the articles about new drugs and medical devices that are published in medical journals by pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and academics” leave out at least some of the adverse effects they have uncovered. So drugs can have side effects even doctors don’t know about.
Americans are being turned into guinea pigs
“How pharma keeps a trove of drug trials out of public view.” That was the headline on a 2015 story in The Washington Post. It reported that a 2008 study showed evidence provided to the FDA about a major anti-depressant didn’t include two dozen studies showing it didn’t work.
Big drug companies also pay millions to market these drugs on TV. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2018 that a Yale University study of TV drug ads found they “often violate federal rules and are “unreliable and potentially misleading.”
Wayne Wright can help with your Zostavax case
You can get a free evaluation of your case. Your call is free too. You only pay when Wayne Wright wins your case. Wayne Wright is one of America’s top trial lawyers. His national legal honors are based on the top dollar amounts he’s consistently won for clients for 40 years.