Members of the HELP Committee, US - Senate

Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Michael B. Enzi and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski,

 

I am sure you know that the painkilling substance Propoxyphene (Darvon and Darvocet) was banned in US two years ago. In  Sweden, UK and also in the European Union (EU) the drug was banned earlier.

Thanks to these decisions hundreds, thousands of lives have been and will been saved around the world.

We are Ulf Jonasson, Doctor in Public Health and Birgitta Jonasson, PhD, and we have studied the substance since 1994. We wrote and published eleven scientific articles – seven were about Dextro -Propoxyphene (DXP) as the substance is called in Europe.

We wrote and defended two doctorial dissertations, 2000 at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and 2001 at the Nordic School of Public Health.

Please visit our CV http://bit.ly/NUSPQ4 

Our main result was that 200 persons in Sweden were poisoned to death due to Dextro-Propoxyphene every year during the years 1992-1999. During the years our research has got lots of attention.

In US the substance was synthesized in 1953 and came out on the market 1957 and – as I wrote – banned 2010 – and that makes the drug being around in 53 years. There was a congressional hearing about Propoxyphene * in 1980 – and frankly I have to say, nothing of important happened to stop the fatalities. NOTHING.

The years 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2011 I made trips to Washington DC to promote our research to   authorities,  politicians  and try to make them aware of the huge problems there were with Propoxyphene. We talk about huge problems - with 100,000 to 200,000 fatal poisonings since 1957.

I know these figures are devastating, the American society has not been able to listen to warnings, as a matter of fact, I do believe that there are just a miner group in US that is aware of the big problems - if they know about the problem at all - or if the dare to recognizes the problem.

I am quite sure that I am the first –and only one – that have tried to make some decent estimates about the fatalities due to Propoxyphene in US and it is bulit on data from Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)

I have published some Tweets about my thoughts:

How come that no other than myself dare to estimate the numbers of fatalities due to Propoxyphene in US? http://bit.ly/O0OkJs

The numbers of fatal poisonings caused by Propoxyphene in the US could be 3 600 – 4 600 every year during 2003 - 2010 ( eight years)

How many fatalities do you think 244 828 000 prescriptions on Propoxyphene caused in US during 10 years? http://bit.ly/Qetgiu 

The coming trials about Darvon - Darvocet - with Eli Lilly - may be the hottest medical news in years. http://bit.ly/NUSPQ4

Now I am also able to estimates the number of fatalities during the year 2011, a year without prescriptions of Propoxyphene and from these figures make estimates for the whole country.

I would be very happy to present and explain for you the newest data about the drug in US, what happened aftre the drug was banned.

I visited Senator Kenendys office 2003 and 2004. I did not have the pleasure to meet the Senator himself but I met his man on Public Health, David D. Dorsey – he is nowadays one of the top guys at FDA. I have also met people from Public Citizen, NIDA ( Nora Volkow) and DEA.

Senators, I would be very happy to meet you and inform more about our research when I get to Washington DC. I will be in US from Monday November 12^th and will stay in US till Monday 19^th. Wednesday 14^th – Thursday 15^th I will be in Boston.

Look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind Regards

Ulf Jonasson

PS. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski was part of the investigating in 1980.

·         The report “Propoxyophene – oversight.  Hearing before the subcommittee on the health and the environment of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, May 21, 1980 Serial No 96-180”

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Ulf Jonasson

Doctor in Public Health (DrPH) and Journalist
Lövdalsvägen 5, SE-640 20 Björkvik, Sweden
Phone:+46(0)155 714 55 Cellphone:+46(0)730 23 26 00
http://ulfjonasson.nforced..com/

http://jonassonulf.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/DrUlfJonasson

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