Free Republic

Certain acid blockers in a popular heartburn drug might actually increase the risk of premature death. As CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reports, there are three main types of heartburn drugs. Antacids, like Tums and Rolaids, are fine. So are older acid blockers called H-2 blockers, like Pepcid and Zantac. But the evidence keeps piling up that drugs called PPIs, like Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec, might actually be risky. They are among the best-selling drugs in the country, with more than $10 billion spent annually on a class of acid blocking medications called Proton Pump Inhibitors, or PPIs. It almost seems...

Associated Press CHICAGO — Holiday revelers beware: Seasonal indulgences such as eggnog and fruitcake might give you heartburn, but the acid-fighting medicine you take for relief might lead to something worse, researchers say. People on popular prescription drugs for treating acid reflux — Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium — seem more prone to getting a potentially dangerous diarrhea caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, new research shows. C-diff, as it's known, can cause severe diarrhea and crampy intestinal inflammation called colitis. Dr. Sandra Dial and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal examined data on more than 18,000 patients in the United...

THE CONSUMER Five popular heartburn drugs work in essentially the same way, but only one of them, Prilosec, is sold without a prescription. Does that mean it is not as effective as the others? No, doctors say, Prilosec works just as well as the prescription drugs for most people - but only if they can get their hands on it. The pills are in such short supply that many drugstores are asking customers to wait two weeks or more for fresh stocks. Some patients have tracked down the medicine by calling around to other stores or shopping on eBay. Others...

BOSTON -- For years, they've been the standard freebies that drug companies have offered in an attempt to get doctors to prescribe their medications: expensive dinners, golf outings, trips to ski resorts and drug samples. But federal prosecutors claim the gift-giving has gone too far. This week, 11 current and former sales executives from TAP Pharmaceutical Products -- a leading drug company -- go on trial, accused of conspiring to pay kickbacks to doctors, hospitals and other customers. The charges focus on efforts to get doctors to prescribe Lupron, the company's prostate-cancer drug, as well as Prevacid, its heartburn drug....

Prevacid is too expensive to make in this Country?Those who take it know what Prevacid is for, but I'll give a link to it anyway ----- http://www.prevacid.com/  ------I started Prevacid about a year ago. The Dr. who prescribed it gave me some 1 week blisterpaks of them to get me started and see if I tolerated it. These Packs had a lot of info on them that ARE NOT on the prescription bottle. ONE PIECE OF INFO WAS THIS ----- "MADE IN CHINA"That, to me, means that the finished cost of each capsule was on the level of Pennies each. The...