Efficacy and safety of iron-chelation therapy with deferoxamine, deferiprone, and deferasirox for the treatment of iron-loaded patients with nontransfusion-dependent thalassemia syndromes

Author’s reply George J Kontoghiorghes Postgraduate Research Institute of Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine, Limassol, Cyprus There are many murky areas and marketing, legal, ethical, and other conflicts in the pharmaceutical industry, some of which involve physicians and academics. These activities and related ethical issues affect the safety and treatment of millions of patients. 1–11 Irregular and sometimes illegal activities for new patented drugs carried out by pharmaceutical companies, such as secrecy agreements with academics/academic institutions, can lead to biased reporting of the results of clinical trials and cover ups or underreporting of toxic side effects, as well as doctor’s bribes, irregularities in drug pricing, corruption of the drug regulatory authorities, influential medical journals and patient organizations, etc. 1–11 The commercial influence and drug marketing tactics by pharmaceutical companies in the case of deferasirox affect the safety and long-term survival of thousands of thalassemia and other categories of transfused patients. 11–14 View the original paper by Kontoghiorghe and Kontoghiorghes.