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UK: Lancet opens probe into ‘unreliable’ anti-stroke medicine taken by millions worldwide

UK: Lancet opens probe into ‘unreliable’ anti-stroke medicine taken by millions worldwide

Anti-stroke medicine rivaroxaban under controversy

Official US documents have disclosed that a popular anti-stroke medicine may have used fictitious data while concealing research on its fatal effects.In 2009, the acclaimed British medical journal, The Lancet, published a prime story on rivaroxaban, a blood thinner medicine, which showed that the treatment was safe and efficient. But recently, the same journal warned of defaults in the trial data and claimed to initiate an investigation over it.

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In 2011, United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved rivaroxaban, sold under the name Xarelto, for preventing stroke and embolisms (blocked blood vessels caused by blood clots). Millions of people consume tablets every year, Daily Mail reported.

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However, patients consuming rivaroxaban might experience fatal bleeding as a side effect if the claims against the early trials for the medicine are correct. Thousands of researchers have also cited the study on medicine's role in preventing blood clots after surgery.

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Dr Peter Wilmshurst, a cardiologist at Royal Stoke University Hospital, said, "If serious side effects are more common than the ones mentioned in official reports, the risk might be higher than what the patients believe."

"Without trustworthy data, patients and doctors don't know exactly how safe this drug is," added Dr Wilmshurst, a researcher fraud campaigner.

Furthermore, he added that warnings about rivaroxaban are there in other medical research papers, and The Lancet had plenty of time to issue corrections or retract the story.

(With inputs from agencies)

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