KEY POINTS:
An alternative to a drug that is making a lot of people ill will be available within a few weeks, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton told Parliament yesterday.
Health officials say they will make an announcement today about progress in finding an alternative formulation of a drug that helps people with an under-active thyroid gland.
The drug, levothyroxine, is sold in New Zealand in a pharmaceutical branded as Eltroxin, but hundreds of patients have complained that a new formulation first supplied 14 months ago is causing bad side-effects.
Health authorities announced in June they were urgently investigating problems with Eltroxin, which is taken by 70,000 New Zealanders.
Green MP Sue Kedgley said health authorities had been slow to act and dismissive of concerns.
Mr Anderton said the reason there had been so many adverse reactions in New Zealand was "somewhat a mystery" as it had not caused the same level of reactions anywhere else in the world.
He told Parliament that health officials had been asking drug suppliers for some years for an alternative treatment.
Two had now been offered and an alternative would be available to the public within a few weeks.
The drug treats hypothyroidism, a slowed heart rate, tiredness, cramps, constipation, sensitivity to cold and occasional depression caused by a lack of hormones from the thyroid gland.
The current formulation of Eltroxin is the only brand of levothyroxine that has consent for New Zealand distribution.
Investigations by the ministry and its Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority (Medsafe) followed reports of nausea, headaches and weight gain, since the drug was reformulated by manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline more than a year ago.
Ms Kedgley said more than 800 people had complained of side-effects from the reformulation, when manufacture of the drug sold in NZ was last year moved from Canada to Germany. Patients also reported problems such as sore eyes and palpitations.
- NZPA
