Avelox Yet Another Drug Linked to Tendonitis

Washington, DCYet another antibiotic that has been linked to the onset of tendon rupture has everybody talking, including a doctor who earns part of his living advising society at large with regard to health and medicines such as Avelox.

In his daily medical column that appeared in various publications, including the New Brunswick Times & Transcript on June 9th of this year, Dr. Peter Gott wrote about various synthetic, broad-spectrum antibiotics in answer to a question from a reader with respect to Levaquin. The latter is but one drug in the fluoroquinolone family, and there are others.

However, Avelox is also among a group of drugs that were mandated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add a black box warning—the strongest warning currently available in the FDA toolkit—to Avelox for tendon rupture. This is in addition to information that the FDA had already mandated to be included in the Avelox packaging from 2001 to 2004, with an additional update in 2008.

The FDA finally ordered a black box warning for Avelox after it was petitioned to do so by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

According to Dr. Gott's June 9th column, tendon rupture and tendonitis occur at a rate of about one, in every 100,000 people. However, according to the FDA fluoroquinolones increase the risk by up to 4 times. Patients over 60 years of age, those on concomitant steroid therapy and those with a transplanted kidney, heart or lung will see an even greater elevation in their risk factors.

Meantime there are those who have experienced problems as the result of taking Avelox, including James from Merrick, New York who writes that he was given Avelox intravenously in the hospital for pneumonia. "I told them I was allergic to Penicillin.

"After two days my legs became painful and got progressively worse. By the 5th day I could not stand up. My daughter looked this up on the Internet. One of the side affects is tendonitis. On the 6th day I called it to the doctors' attention. They brushed it off as an attack of gout. On the 7th day I insisted they stop this medicine. I was supposed to be on it for 10 days. My symptoms started to clear up. The doctors deny that it was the Avelox. I can now walk but still have trouble with one leg. There is no doubt in my mind that Avelox was the cause of this."

Cathy, from Slaughters, Kentucky is another disgruntled Avelox user. "My husband had severe (adverse reactions) to Avelox in November 2006 which resulted in Stevens Johnson Syndrome/TENS, kidney failure, liver issues, sudden onset of diabetes, first hyperthyroidism, then it switched 2 months later to hypothyroidism. His health will never be the same. Doctors just don't want to accept that a medication can cause so much devastation but it does. Mike lost 41 lbs—which was 26% of his total body weight. He hit a low of 114 lbs. Now at 130, he can't seem to gain anymore."

According to Dr. Peter Gott the manufacturer of Avelox, Bayer A.G. has agreed to make the changes as outlined by the FDA, although Bayer AG has gone on record as saying Avelox and its cousin Cipro are both effective and well-tolerated.

According to the Bayer AG website there are upwards of 109 million Avelox users around the globe.