Acne drug linked to birth defects

Press, 4 October 1985, Page 3

Acne drug linked to birth defects

A drug used to treat acne which is said to be as devastating as Thalidomide in causing birth defects is closely monitored in New Zealand, according to a Health Department official. Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said yesterday that pregnant women who had taken Accutane either during or soon before a pregnancy were 26 times more likely to have a child with serious birth defects. The drug, called Roaccutane in New Zealand, has been sold internationally since 1982, and is made by Hoffman-Laßoche. The deputy director of clinical services in the Health Department, Dr Bob Boyd, said yesterday that the drug was used in New Zealand but was not widely available. It was prescribed only by

dermatologists, who had strict instructions from the Health Department about how to prescribe it. He said the drug was used to treat cases of severe acne — or nodulo-cystic acne, which was resistant to all other forms of therapy. “Right from the outset when the medicine was first introduced the dermatologists were given advice on the use of it,” he said. The drug had always carried warnings on its use with pregnant women, he said. “We have said quite firmly that no female of child-bearing age should start the medicine unless she has been proved not to be pregnant,” he said. The specialists were told to ensure that a woman had safe contraception until at

least one month after finishing her course of Raccutane. The study by the Massachusetts doctors was published this week in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” It showed that the pre-scription-only medicine could cause cranial, facial, heart, and central nervous system abnormalities. The president of the Canterbury branch of the Chemists’ Guild, Mr John Tavener, said yesterday that the drug was rarely kept by pharmacists because of its high cost. It was mostly kept in hospital pharmacies. A spokesman from Christchurch Hospital said yesterday that she had seen little of the drug through the hospital pharmacy, and it was only prescribed by consultants.