FDA Panel Votes to Ban Darvon

Darvocet is Among the Top 25 Drugs Prescribed

A panel of experts convened by the FDA to weigh evidence for the continued use of the painkiller Darvon (marketed as Darvocet), has recommended that the drug be banned in the US. Darvon has been on the market since 1957, and is among the most commonly prescribed pain medications available, with more than 2 million prescriptions written in 2007 alone, according to reports.

In preparation for the hearing the FDA did an analysis which included a search of their adverse events database. The results revealed more than 3000 reports of serious adverse events, with the top 3 being suicide, drug dependence and overdoses.

Data presented by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a drug safety expert with Public Citizen, showed that Darvon-related deaths increased from 446 in 2006 to 503 in 2007: suicide accounted for 20 percent of those deaths in both years. The data are from the government's Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks emergency room visits and deaths, and covers nearly one-third of the U.S. population.

Additional information from Florida's medical examiner reporting system revealed that Darvon was present in the bodies of 341 people who died from drug-related causes, and was the cause of death in 85 (25 percent) of those cases.

Darvon was banned in the United Kingdom in 2005.

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Published on Jan-30-09