Drugs Log

The anti-clotting drug Plavix must now carry a “black box” warning on its label, alerting patients and doctors that some people don’t metabolize the medication properly, U.S. health officials said Friday.
Patients with a certain genetic variation can’t convert the blood thinner into its active form, which puts them at risk for heart attack and stroke, [...]

A new blood thinner proved better than Plavix, one of the world’s top-selling drugs, at preventing heart problems after procedures to open clogged arteries, doctors reported Sunday. But the new drug also raised the risk of serious bleeding.
People given the experimental drug, prasugrel, were nearly 20 percent less likely to suffer one of the problems [...]