Special Alerts:

[Posted 12/12/2006] FDA informed healthcare professionals and consumers that the Agency ordered firms to stop marketing unapproved drug products containing quinine, citing serious safety concerns, including deaths associated with quinine products. There are multiple unapproved products containing quinine currently on the market, used off-label to treat leg cramps and similar conditions. Since 1969, FDA received 665 reports of adverse events with serious outcomes associated with quinine use, including 93 deaths. Quinine drugs are associated with serious side effects, such as cardiac arrhythmias, thrombocytopenia, and severe hypersensitivity reactions. Qualaquin, manufactured by Mutual Pharmaceutical Company, is the only quinine product approved by the FDA. For more information visit the FDA website at: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2006/safety06.htm#Quinine and http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01521.html.