Protopic Warning Too Late

November 27, 2006, 12:00AM. By Jane Mundy

Seattle, WA"I am sure that heavy use of Protopic caused my wife's death," says Joel Green. "She was diagnosed with T-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, about six months after taking daily applications of Protopic."

"In November 2002 my wife experienced a bad skin rash and an allergist (and personal friend) prescribed Protopic after some steroid creams didn't work," says Green (not his real name). "She slathered herself with this stuff because it worked - it reduced the inflammation and itching.

This rash was all over her face, torso, just about her entire body. She used a lot of it on a daily basis. About six months later, she became very ill and went into hospital. That's when she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lympho-ma. This was a complete shock; up until this point she was healthy and there was nothing like this illness in her family. There was nothing we could do: it couldn't be controlled with chemo-therapy or radiation.

My wife passed away six months later. She was only 57 years old. It was really tough, especially on our 12-year-old daughter.

Some time later, I heard about Protopic on the news channel. It was very painful to watch. I immediately recognized the name of the drug and there were still several tubes of it in the house. I had a sinking feeling of 'Ohmigod, what did she do to herself?'

The point is, the drug did what is prescribed to do and reduced the inflammation by lowering the body's immune response. But it reduced her immune system to the point that her body couldn't fight - it was suppressed by Protopic.

I talked to our allergist friend and a few doctor friends after I heard about the black box warning. The allergist was rather cagey about answering my questions as he felt there might be some liability involved. I was hesitant to go ahead with a lawsuit mainly because of the emotional trauma and the allergist is a close family friend. When and if I go to court with this, I am sure a lawyer would bring him in as part of the case, because he also approved large doses of the drug.

I did write a detailed letter to the FDA when they were investigating Protopic and gave them medical records - evidence of the link between Protopic and lymphoma. I also told them to make sure their black box warning covers this kind of a case.

After the fact, the information sheet inside the Protopic box states that animals got lymphomas from Protopic. When my wife took it, there was no warning. I am a scientist and I am absolutely convinced that this drug caused my wife's death.

I also want to say this: It's very important that people who are contemplating using Protopic should be aware of all the possible consequences.