Plavix gets US "boxed warning" about poor metabolisers
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis have added a "boxed warning" to the US label for the blockbuster blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel), in order to warn about the diminished effectiveness of the drug in patients with a certain variant of the CYP2C1P liver enzyme leading to reduced formation of the active metabolite. These so-called "poor metabolisers" represent approximately 2% of Caucasians, 4% of blacks and 14% of Chinese, the upgraded label states.