DRUG INDUSTRY ATTACKED ON ASPIRIN ISSUE
Elements of the drug industry endangered
the lives of children by pressuring the government to delay a
now common warning on the link between aspirin and an often
fatal disease, a doctor said.
    The warning involving Reye's Syndrome has since been
required on aspirin products under a Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) directive of one year ago, and now appears
on the labels of aspirin and aspirin-containing products.
    The industry under government coaxing began voluntarily
printing warning labels in mid-1985.
   
    But in an editorial in this week's Journal of the
American Medical Association, Dr Edward Mortimer of Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland said some aspirin
manufacturers misled physicians and acted irresponsibly in
opposing the warning for several years before then.
    Mortimer's criticism was prompted by a new government study
published in the same issue of the Journal which said it had
found a "strong association" between aspirin and Reye's Syndrome.
    Reye's Syndrome, which kills about 20 per cent of its
victims, strikes following chicken pox, influenza and other 
illnesses. Symptoms include lethargy, belligerence and
excessive vomiting. Those who survive sometimes suffer brain
damage.
  
 Reuter
