Opening Statement
Chairman
Dan Burton
Government
Reform Committee Hearing
Accutane Is this Acne Drug Treatment
Linked to Depression and Suicide?
December 5, 2000
1:00 pm
2154
Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC
Good afternoon. A quorum being present, the Committee on
Government Reform will come to order.
I ask unanimous consent that all Members
and witnesses written opening statements be included in the record. Without objection, so ordered.
I ask unanimous
consent that all articles, exhibits, and extraneous or tabular material referred to be
included in the record. Without objection, so
ordered.
[CHAIRMANS OPENING STATEMENT]
We are here
today to talk about the acne medication Accutane and concerns that the drug is linked to
depression and suicide.
Accutane was licensed by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) in 1982 as an oral prescription drug for the treatment of severe
acne. Current recommendations indicate that
the drug should only be used when a patient has not responded to other treatments
including antibiotics.
During the
course of our investigation, we were told by dermatologists that while the drug has many
severe side effects, that there is no other treatment available; however, we also learned
that many individuals have been prescribed this drug for less severe forms of acne. I am attaching for the record an article outlining
natural treatments for acne.[1]
The
most well known adverse effect attributed to Accutane is birth defects of the children
born to women who take the drug during pregnancy, However, we will focus todays
hearing on the mental health issues. Did the
Department of Health and Human Services fulfilled its public safety obligation in making
the public aware of the potential for depression and suicide related to this drug?
A significant number of psychiatric events, mostly severe
depression, have been reported through post-marketing surveillance. The FDA has received
reports of sixty-six suicides and one thousand three hundred seventy three psychiatric
adverse events other than suicide related to Accutane.
According to Roche Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Accutane,
the number of domestic and foreign reports of serious adverse events in the post-marketing
adverse events database for Accutane as of April 30 was five thousand six hundred
sixty-five. The largest percentage of these
reports were psychiatric problems. Almost
nineteen percent of the adverse events reported to Roche were psychiatric.
Also, the most recent Periodic Adverse Drug Event Report for
Accutane includes, for a twelve-month period, over seven hundred fifty new psychiatric
adverse event reports (foreign and domestic), including two hundred that were coded as
serious events, nine reports of suicide attempts, and six reports of completed suicides.[2]
Four
questions arose during the course of this investigation:
1.
When
did the issue of depression and suicide first arise regarding Accutane?
2.
What
actions did Roche and the FDA take to determine if there was a causal link?
3.
When
and how was the public notified? And
4.
Was
that public notification adequate?
According
to Roche, there is no evidence of increased risk ofdepression or suicide related to
Accutane. Instead, they believe that the
events reflect the multiple risk factors in the population of adolescents and young adults
afflicted with the disfiguring disease of acne.
While the package insert for Accutane contains language that warns of depression
and suicide, this information is not typically provided to patients by either the
physician or the pharmacist.
Extensive patient education is required regarding pregnancy prevention
while on Accutane because of the risk of birth defects.
However, there is no system in place to educate patients and families about
depression and suicide.
We learned through our investigation that
reports of depression and suicide are not new. The
first report of depression in patients taking Accutane occurred in September 1982. Two patients in a clinical trial with 523 patients
reported depression. Roche received five adverse experience reports of depression in 1983. November 1983, Roche received its first report of
attempted suicide. November 1984, Roche
received its first report of suicide. In May
1986 Roche received reports of five or six positive rechallenges in patients who
experienced depression during Accutane therapy. In
these patients, the depression went away when they stopped taking Accutane and began again
after starting Accutane therapy again. Positive
rechallenge is a significant indicator of a causal link between a drug and the adverse
event.
As
early as November 1984, Roche began including information on the package insert about
reports of depression. Even thought French authorities required a label change to include
suicide attempt in March 1997, the FDA did not require Roche to make a label
change until February 1998. FDA also required
that Roche notify physicians who were likely to prescribe Accutane.
In February 1998, the FDA issued a Talk Paper advising consumers of and health care providers of new safety information regarding Accutane. The paper states:
What is
disturbing to me is that the FDA published an article in their own Consumer Magazine
entitled, On the Teen Scene: Acne Agony
in July 1999. Thirty percent of the article
focuses on Accutane. It goes into great
detail about the pregnancy prevention because of birth defects, but fails to make any
mention of depression and suicide. This
article appeared 16 months after FDAs advisory.
Why did the
FDA not use its own Consumer magazine to notify the public of this concern?
Today
we will hear from three families:
Amanda Callais was prescribed Accutane as a 14 year-old in September 1997. By November she was seriously depressed and attempted suicide. The psychiatrist treating her for depression was not aware of the connection between Accutane and depression and did not suspend her use of the drug after her suicide attempt. She remained seriously depressed. In February 1998, Amandas mother, Lori learned of the FDAs warning and stopped Amandas treatment. Amanda quickly made a full recovery. Mother and daughter are here today to share their experience.
Stacy and Mike Baumann of Mundelein Illinois lost their son Daniel to suicide in December 1999. Daniel began Accutane treatment in July 1999. He suffered many adverse effects - chapped lips, dry skin and itching, joint and muscle pain, headaches, nausea, loss of appetite, mood swings, and insomnia. The physician thought his depression was school-related and never mentioned the FDA warning.
Mr. Charles Jackson of Lubbock, Texas lost his 17
year-old son, Clay, in January 2000. Clay
had been on Accutane for about three months. The
family was provided no information by the physician regarding the FDA warning.
Accutane is only supposed to be
prescribed for severe recalcitrant nodular acne after every other treatment option has
faiiled. Dr. David Pariser of Norfolk,
Virginia, will be testifying on the behalf of the American Academy of Dermatology and
providing an overview of the types of acne and when Accutane is recommended.
Dr. Douglas Jacobs, on faculty at
Harvard, and a Roche consultant, will present his evaluation of the adverse drug events
regarding psychosis, depression, and suicide and Accutane.
Dr. James O'Donnel, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Rush Medical School will present information regarding the connection between Accutane and other vitamin A derivatives and depression and suicide.
Dr. Jonca Bull will testify on behalf of
the Food and Drug Administration.
I realize that this issue will be
difficult for some of you to discuss. My heart goes out to each of you and to every family
member dealing with the tragedy of suicide. I
hope that this hearing can help resolve some of the unanswered questions so that maybe
future tragedies can be avoided.
The hearing record will remain open until December 18.
I now recognize the ranking minority
member, Mr. Waxman, for his opening statement.
[1] Kroll D, Natural Treatment for Acne, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Vol 2, No 2, Mar/April 1996, page 87-90.
[2] Appendix I, Briefing Materials, Dermatologic and Opthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee
Meeting, September 18-19, 2000, http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/00/backgrd/3639b1.htm