Regulatory Update: France’s FDA-Equivalent Agency Reissues Finasteride Warning
February 2, 2019 Dear Friends: Prompted by an increasing number of adverse drug-reaction reports to finasteride, France’s FDA-equivalent agency yesterday issued a letter to 100,000 health professionals reminding them that patients treated with the drug are at risk for developing psychiatric disorders and persistent sexual disorders. The Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des […]
Noted Swiss Science Writer Sides with Nation’s 2,000 PFS Sufferers
February 1, 2019 Dear Friends: Looks like Switzerland’s not so neutral after all. At least when it comes to finasteride. In a SonntagsZeitung story headlined Finasteride was once considered a miracle cure for hair loss. But soon libido disorders and other serious side effects were discovered. Now it’s going to court (English translation here ), […]
France’s Le Monde to 300,000 Readers: Finasteride Users Beware
January 25, 2019 Dear Friends: France is at it again. Doing the right thing, that is. Earlier this week, Le Monde—the nation’s second-largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of more than 300,000 copies—ran a story headlined When Fighting Hair Loss, Watch out for Finasteride. (English translation here.) The 1,170-word report, by Pascale Santi, begins: “Romain […]
Finasteride ‘Causes Several Alterations’ in the Section of the Brain Responsible for Processing Long-term Memory and Emotional Responses, New Animal-model Study Demonstrates
SOMERSET, N.J., Oct. 1, 2018 – “Finasteride treatment causes several alterations in the hippocampus,” the section of the brain responsible for processing long-term memory and emotional responses, according to a new study conducted at the University of Milano, and the Cajal Institute and Carlos III Health Institute, both in Madrid. Titled Treatment of male rats […]
New PFS Foundation Website Welcomes Increased Patient Involvement
Sept. 7, 2018 Dear Friends: The new PFS Foundation website is finally here, and we couldn’t be more enthusiastic, because it promises to speed along numerous global-awareness and patient-support efforts. You’ll note that the homepage features an info-graphic called “PFS by the Numbers” that functions as a running tab of data in six categories: Adverse […]
2018 PFS Foundation Annual Address
Aug. 4, 2018 Dear Friends: November 23 is a day I wish I could strike forever from the calendar. For it’s the anniversary of my son Randy’s death. And this coming November 23 will be particularly difficult, marking a decade since his passing. On that day in 2008, despite my degrees from Johns Hopkins and […]
France’s No. 1 News Magazine Takes Federal Drug Agency to Task for Letting PFS Proliferate
July 31, 2018 Dear Friends: Thirty-thousand Frenchman can’t all be immune to PFS. And the nation’s most widely read news magazine seems bent on proving it. In a July 21 feature story headlined Finasteride, the Controversial Drug that Medical Authorities Continue to Defend (English translation here), investigative reporters Camélia Echchihab and Emre Sari write: “Can […]
Regulatory Update: Germany’s FDA Equivalent Issues ‘Red Hand Letter’ on Finasteride ADRs
July 6, 2018 Dear Friends: Apparently heeding an appeal by Germany’s largest weekly newspaper, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has dispatched a so-called Red Hand Letter to doctors and pharmacists nationwide, informing them of severe and persistent adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to finasteride. Five months ago, we told you that Die […]
‘We Wouldn’t Recommend That Any Man Take’ Finasteride, Urologist at University Hospital Zurich Tells Swiss TV News Magazine
May 20, 2018 Dear Friends: Yet another European nation has taken to the airwaves with PFS awareness. This time it’s Switzerland. The network is Swiss Radio and Television (SRF). And the program is Puls. On May 7, the weekly health-news magazine debuted a special report titled Do Anti-Baldness Remedies Make You Impotent? (English-subtitled version here.) […]
Common Pathways Between PFS and Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction Could Be Useful in Designing Therapeutic Strategies for Both, Says New University of Milano Study
April 30, 2018 Dear Friends: Roberto Cosimo Melcangi, Ph.D., head of the Neuroendocrinology Unit in the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Milano, has published a new paper in the current issue of Endocrine: International Journal of Basic and Clinical Endocrinology. Titled Post-finasteride syndrome and post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: two sides of […]