Deadly Effects of PPA Can Stop More Than a Cold

PPA (or Phenylpropanolamine) is an ingredient that has been commonly used for decades in numerous cold remedies and diet pills, with potentially deadly consequences.

Available for at least 53 years, if not longer, Americans have been taking over 6 billion doses of PPA each year in a wide range of prescription and over-the-counter products, including such popular brand names as Alka-Seltzer Cold, Bayer Cold, Dexatrim, Dimetapp, Robitussin-CF, Dristan, Tavis-D, Allerest, Triaminic, Allergy Relief, Contac, and Sucrets Cold. By some calculations, as many as 400 over-the-counter products have contained PPA.

However, reliable research has linked PPA to dramatically increased risk factors of stroke, especially in women ages 18 to 49. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of PPA in all prescription and nonprescription drugs. Government scientists have also affirmed that PPA may be responsible for several hundred hemorrhagic strokes (possibly many more) that have stricken people under the age of 50.

Yet the greatest risk of PPA exposure lies not in new over-the-counter purchases (since PPA is already banned) but in potentially deadly "dormant doses" of PPA now lurking in seemingly innocent cold remedies and diet pills still sitting in medicine cabinets across America.

In a landmark study funded by the pharmaceutical industry itself, Yale University's School of Medicine has published Phenylpropanolamine & Risk of Hemorrhagic Stoke: Final Report of the Hemorrhagic Stroke Project. In this case study, Yale University scientists have shown that PPA (used in cold, cough and diet products like Robitussin, Dexatrim, and Accutrim) may significantly increase the risk of stroke, especially in women. The report is posted on the FDA Web site at: www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ppa/default.htm

This Yale University study includes a long history of published serious adverse events, including hemorrhagic stroke, attributed to PPA going back as far as 1979. These cases were attributable to PPA because they typically occurred close in time to ingestion of PPA by otherwise healthy younger people. There was a lack of other plausible explanations for the occurrence of these events in these younger healthy individuals.

Since the outset, HermanGerel has been on the forefront of PPA litigation. This means we are well prepared to help you or someone you know who has suffered the ill effects of PPA. Click here to have one of our attorneys evaulate your potential claim.

Because the dangers of PPA were not previously known to the public, it is highly unlikely that the many individuals who suffered hemorrhagic stroke ever associated that terrible event with their use of seemingly innocent over-the-counter products containing this drug. Further, even doctors and other medical personnel may well have failed to make the connection between the stroke and PPA, because they were unfamiliar with its dangers.

On November 6, 2000, in response to the Yale University study, the FDA ordered that all over-the-counter manufacturers remove PPA from their products.

See the latest updates on PPA in news items.

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