REALITY?: The “If it don’t cure you, it’ll kill you” Department

It used to be that the U.S. FDA  used to take years and years before approving a promising new medicine that dying folks would gladly have tried without that stamp of validation.  So what’s with this new trend where the list of dangers are worse than the symptoms?  From the Humira website (Abbott Corp.), a drug mainly prescribed for pain from various forms of arthritis, or Crohns disease:

Serious side effects of HUMIRA include:

Serious infections, certain types of cancer (there have been cases of certain kinds of cancer in patients taking HUMIRA or other TNF blockers. Patients with more serious RA that have had the disease for a long time may have a higher chance for getting a kind of cancer called lymphoma), allergic reactions (signs of a serious allergic reaction include a skin rash, a swollen face, or trouble breathing), hepatitis B virus reactivation in patients who carry the virus in their blood, nervous system problems (signs and symptoms of a nervous system problem include: numbness or tingling, problems with your vision, weakness in your legs, and dizziness), blood problems (symptoms include a fever that does not go away, bruising or bleeding very easily, or looking very pale), new heart failure or worsening of heart failure you already have (symptoms include shortness of breath or swelling of your ankles or feet), and immune reactions including a lupus-like syndrome (symptoms include shortness of breath, joint pain, or a rash on your cheeks or arms that is sensitive to the sun). Call your doctor or get medical care right away if you develop any of the above symptoms. Your treatment with HUMIRA may be stopped.

I’m not sure why the FDA felt that the possibility of cancer and heart failure is a fair trade-off against the pain and debilitating effects of arthritis, but there ya go.