Thirty patients have died after taking Symdeko, a Vertex Pharmaceuticals treatment for cystic fibrosis, according to a government database.
The deaths, reported to the Food and Drug Administration’s database of side effects, are tied to Symdeko, a Vertex medicine approved last year. Reports to the database are commonly submitted by health care professionals and often contain incomplete information about how patients died and what other medicines they were taking. It’s also unclear whether any of the deaths are directly related to Symdeko.
Vertex did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Symdeko is the most recent of Vertex’s three approved treatments for cystic fibrosis. The drug, tailored for specific genetic subtypes of the rare disease, is also the backbone of a combination cystic fibrosis therapy now under FDA review.
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