More prescription drugs are on the market that can interact with grapefruit juice with potentially serious effects such as sudden death, Canadian doctors warn. David Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ont., discovered the interaction between grapefruit and certain medications more than 20 years ago. Since then, he said, the number of drugs with the potential to interact has jumped to more than 85. Grapefruit juice is known to interact with some types of medications, leading to an overdose hazard. Bailey reviews new product monographs and prescribing information for the Canadian Pharmacists Association, and keeps a close eye on those with the potential to produce serious adverse reactions. "What I've noticed over the last four years is really quite a disturbing trend and that is the increase in the number of drugs that can produce not only adverse reactions but extraordinarily serious adverse drug reactions," Bailey said. "Between 2008 and 2012, the number of drugs in the list has gone from 17 to now 44." Many of the drugs are common, such as some cholesterol-lowering statins, antibiotics and calcium channel blockers used to treat high blood pressure. Others include agents used to fight cancer … Continue reading →

NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman discusses a newly released study that expands the list of drugs adversely affected by grapefruit. By JoNel Aleccia, NBC News If you kick-start your day with a glass of grapefruit juice, be careful. Canadian scientists say the number of common prescription drugs that can interact badly with the tart citrus is climbing, with the potential for dangerous, even deadly, results. Twenty-six new drugs that can cause serious harm when mixed with grapefruit have been introduced in the past four years alone, bringing the total to 43, said Dr. David Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Institute Research Center in London, Ontario. Thats an average of more than six new drugs a year. What Ive seen has been disturbing, said Bailey, lead author on a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Its hard to avoid putting a drug out on the market that is not affected by grapefruit juice. Joerg Beuge / featurepics.com The number of drugs that interact with grapefruit is climbing, with potentially serious results, scientists say. More than 85 drugs that interact with whole grapefruit, grapefruit concentrate or fresh grapefruit juice have been identified, though not all have serious consequences. … Continue reading →

The number of drugs when mixed with grapefruit that can lead to serious health problems, including sudden death, has skyrocketed, warns a Canadian researcher who first discovered the toxic link. In an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, David Bailey, a scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, said more than 85 drugs, many of them highly prescribed for common medical conditions, are known to interact with the pink fruit. He first made the link 20 years ago. But the number of medications with the potential to interact with grapefruit and cause serious adverse health effects has jumped from 17 to 43 in the last four years, as new drugs have been rolled out, Bailey said. "How big a problem are such interactions? Unless health care professionals are aware of the possibility that the adverse event they are seeing might have an origin in the recent addition of grapefruit to the patient's diet, it is very unlikely that they will investigate it," Bailey said. Generally patients don't say they eat grapefruit and doctors don't ask, he lamented in the article. Grapefruit poses a risk when mixed with certain drugs because it inhibits an enzyme that metabolizes … Continue reading →

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African drugmaker Adcock Ingram reported a worse-than-expected 9 percent fall in annual earnings, hit by the loss of high-margin drugs. The country's second-largest drugmaker has struggled in recent months after losing three drugs that contributed as much as 200 million rand in sales due to safety reasons. Its failure to win a bigger share in the government HIV/AIDS drugs supply contract added to the headwinds. Adcock said diluted headline earnings per share - the main profit gauge in South Africa - totalled 422 cents in the year to end-September, from 465 cents a year earlier. The results fell short of the 430 cents forecast by StarMine's SmartEstimate, which gives more weight to forecasts from top rated analysts. "Disappointing set of results that reflect a weak pricing power," Jean Pierre Verster, an analyst at 360ne Asset Management. "It also continues to show the impact of the loss of key drugs and lower anti-retroviral drugs volumes." South African health authorities granted drug manufacturers a 2.14 percent drug price increase for certain prescription drugs in March this year, a hike analysts say did not keep up with the rising cost of imported raw materials due to a weaker rand. … Continue reading →

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Nov. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Because of new chemical formulations, prescription drugs that interact badly with grapefruit have more than doubled in number since 2008, yet many doctors seem unaware of this, Canadian researchers report. "The number of drugs on the market with the potential to produce serious adverse and in many cases life-threatening effects when combined with grapefruit has markedly increased over the past few years from 17 to 43 in four years," said lead researcher David Bailey, from the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario. "There is much greater need for health care professionals to understand grapefruit/drug interactions and to apply this information to the safer use of these drugs in their clinical practice," Bailey said. Even small amounts of grapefruit or grapefruit juice have the potential to cause sudden death, acute kidney failure, respiratory failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and other serious side effects when paired with these medications. Included are certain cholesterol-lowering medications, blood pressure drugs, cancer treatments and antibiotics such as erythromycin, the researchers said. According to their review article, published Nov. 26 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, more than 85 drugs may interact with grapefruit. Forty-three of these … Continue reading →