What Amgen Sent Me
Amgen has sent me over the past several weeks lots of their professional literature, including their "labeling" as it is called. It warns against "stopping" Prolia, and urges consulting with a physician before doing so, but nowhere does the word "delay" appear. While "stopping" could include "delay," most lay people reading this (and perhaps medical professionals as well) might not think of a brief "delay" (for whatever reason) as going off a drug permanently. And in my case the delay was in large part occasioned by the prescribing doctors.
Amgen's representative with whom I spoke on the phone asked if I had seen their patient information. I said I had not. So they sent me a beautiful brochure printed in full color on heavy, glossy stock. It was all in Spanish. I can read Spanish fairly well but saw nothing warning patients of delay. So to be fair I called back and asked if I could have a copy in English.
When that arrived, a quick reading confirmed that this -- like its Spanish language counterpart -- was mostly a puff-piece about the wonders of Prolia. There was no mention of the disaster that could result from even a short delay. In fact, as with their literature for doctors, the word "delay" appeared nowhere that I could see.
When that arrived, a quick reading confirmed that this -- like its Spanish language counterpart -- was mostly a puff-piece about the wonders of Prolia. There was no mention of the disaster that could result from even a short delay. In fact, as with their literature for doctors, the word "delay" appeared nowhere that I could see.
I also got a nice letter from Amgen urging me to suggest to my doctor that this brochure be given to patients. I responded that I would specifically recommend to my doctor that it NOT be given to patients because it had omitted the very information that could have spared me many months of pain and disability so far, and prospects of the same looking forward.