Novo Nordisk's clotting drug NovoSeven has been linked to a host of serious side effects, including deaths, strokes and heart attacks. The drug was approved by the FDA in 1999 to stop the bleeding of hemophiliacs. But physicians have also been using the drug--which costs $7,500 a dose--to treat cerebral hemorrhages. The side effects were largely concentrated among the cases involving off-label drug uses. The authors of the report at the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Novo Nordisk says that the drug has experienced few problems when prescribed for its approved use.
- read this Washington Post article