Bayer is forced to release documents over withdrawal of cerivastatin

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer has, for the first time, been forced to release confidential company documents to the US courts in a damages case over the lipid lowering drug cerivastatin. The case, held in a Texan court, reveals just how much the company knew about the problems with the drug before withdrawing it in 2001. Bayer withdrew cerivastatin (marketed as Baycol in the United States and Lipobay in Europe) from the US market and Europe in August 2001 and subsequently in Japan because of an increasing number of reports to the US Food and Drug Administration of rhabdomyolysis—a rare disorder in which muscle tissue breaks down and that can lead to organ failure and death—in …