Personal Injury Lawyers in New York

In November, 2007, Bayer AG, the German company long famous for its aspirin and more recently the manufacturer of Trasylol, pulled Trasylol off the worldwide market. This was in response to a request from the FDA which asked Bayer to remove Trasylol from the American market for safety reasons. The FDA had previously approved Trasylol in 1993.

Trasylol is a blood-clotting drug used to control bleeding during surgery. It has often been used in coronary artery bypass graft surgeries, but has been associated with increased chances of kidney damage and death.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association back in January 2006 found that patients taking Trasylol had a greater risk of death during the following five years than patients who took alternative drugs. One of the authors of this study, Dr. Dennis T. Mangano, has recently estimated that perhaps 1,000 people per month have died because of Trasylol use between January 2006 and November 2007, when Bayer AG began pulling it off the market. He made that statement on a 60 Minutes program on February 17, 2008.

Trasylol’s withdrawal from the market has been done gradually, to make sure that alternative drugs would be available. There are two alternatives, known as aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid, both of which are effective, according to two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine on February 21, 2008. They are also less expensive and less risky than Trasylol.

If you have a loved one who sustained kidney damage after Trasylol was used in surgery, or who has since died, please contact us for a free case evaluation.