Certain diabetes drugs must warn of deadly flesh-eating genital infection, FDA says

[dixiegrrrrl]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning that cases of a rare but serious infection of the genitals and area around the genitals have been reported with the class of type 2 diabetes medicines called sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. This serious rare infection, called necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum, is also referred to as Fournier’s gangrene. We are requiring a new warning about this risk to be added to the prescribing information of all SGLT2 inhibitors and to the patient Medication Guide.

SGLT2 inhibitors are FDA-approved for use with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors lower blood sugar by causing the kidneys to remove sugar from the body through the urine. First approved in 2013, medicines in the SGLT2 inhibitor class include canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, and ertugliflozin (see FDA-Approved SGLT2 Inhibitors). In addition, empagliflozin is approved to lower the risk of death from heart attack and stroke in adults with type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Untreated, type 2 diabetes can lead to serious problems, including blindness, nerve and kidney damage, and heart disease.

Patients should seek medical attention immediately if you experience any symptoms of tenderness, redness, or swelling of the genitals or the area from the genitals back to the rectum, and have a fever above 100.4 F or a general feeling of being unwell. These symptoms can worsen quickly, so it is important to seek treatment right away.

https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm617360.htm

List of medications halfway down page at link

[True Dough]

1. That doesn't sound fun at all

Think I'll try to avoid that one.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

2. Gee Whiz...

We got some good news and some bad news....your sugar level is normal...but we have to talk about whats going on downstairs.
How about drug companies work on some new antibiotics?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Can you imagine getting a prescription from your doctor, who says something like,

"This drug is quite effective at treating your diabetes, but there's a small chance that it will make your dick fall off."

[malaise]

7. But the list of side effects we hear on Cable for these

and other drugs is enough to make you avoid them.

[KentuckyWoman]

15. I love drug ads.

This will make you live 2 months longer if you are dying of terminal brain cancer, at a cost of $50,000 a week. Unless you are one of the 30% who's necks swells up and suffocates um after the first dosage.

[jmowreader]

20. But if that happens...

you still owe us the $50,000.

What is the motto for this crap? "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger?"

[malaise]

4. Ads for these and other drugs are shown on cable non-stop

My question is why would anyone take these drugs after she/he hears the side effects.
Further the same cable stations then advertise the lawyers suing the drug companies for damage done by said drugs.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I like where they show teeeny print and a you hear a rushed voice stating the side effects

Neither of which one would remember 10 minutes later.

There's a documentary called Bleeding Edge which exposes the various types of medical implants, and the fact most of them are not stringently tested45Same for any more. WE end up being the testers. Same thing for drugs.
And once we find out a new drug is harming us, we have to fight to make the drug companies pay attention.

We need to have a FDA with teeth.

[malaise]

12. Big pharma owns too many politicians and M$Greedia loves

their money. We have to be our own watchdogs.

[StarryNite]

16. "Bleeding Edge"

On my need to see list! I just heard about it last week.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Not sure when I will watch it.

I have a chest port, and sure hope that does not come up in the documentary.

[yonder]

5. How do they spin that in the TV ads?

wankey's and hoo hoo's?

[jmowreader]

9. They'll come up with some fancy medical term

There is undoubtedly some way to say “this product may cause your dick to rot off” without using the terms “dick” and “rot off.”

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Gee...the first one is named after that Dump spawn woman: Invokana

[Laffy Kat]

8. Guess they can add crotch-rot to the list of side-effects...

They fly through at the end of all those TV commercials.

[Hortensis]

11. Good that a connection is identified and warning required.

That is a potentially horrible problem, especially since diabetes typically hinders healing. They may have to keep cutting the dying tissue out, applying vacuum-assisted healing devices, back to the OR for more cutting and VAC placement, try, try again. Dreadful.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Many of them the product in TV Happy Shit ads

[lillypaddle]

14. K&R nt

[MineralMan]

18. Yikes! I've been seeing constant TV ads for that class of diabetes meds.

Uff da!

[Vinca]

19. That ought to make their television advertising more interesting. LOL.

I didn't think there was anything worse than the "death" warning, but flesh-eating genital infection might top it.

[DFW]

22. We don't see ads like that here in Germany, so we gape in amazement at them in the USA

My wife's English is good, but she asked me every time if she had heard correctly. The ads all went like this:

"If you are having trouble sleeping, like so many do, help is now here. Try Cyanidium!"

(Picture shows a gloriously healthy 40-something woman with a Playmate-of-the-Month-like figure standing next to a bed with a man, eyes closed, lying motionless with a contented look on his face)

"My Walter was having trouble sleeping. He tossed and turned, had to get up to go to the bathroom several times a night. But after taking Cyanidium, he hasn't had to get up once!"

Flash back to a white-coated phony doctor holding a box of Cyanidium.

"Cyanidium isn't for everybody. Side effects may include temporary stiffness, not-so-temporary stiffness, almond odor, and prolonged unconsciousness, so consult your doctor before taking it, or your undertaker after taking it. Cyanidium! The sure way to a good night's rest--in peace!"

*Approved by the Huntsville, TX, Department of Criminal Justice facility!

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. FDA has been a captive of Big Pharma for years now.

I told my doc I would take only a generic version of the oldest drug still on the market, figuring the newer ones were still in human guinea pig stage.
Then I research the drug before filling the script.

Problem with us boomers is we know when things worked much better for consumers. Soon as we die off, that institutional memory will be lost.