The european medicines agency said its committee
The study, known as a meta-analysis and published by U.S. researchers earlier this month, looked at all the publicly available data and found that patients were 1.2 percent more likely to be diagnosed with a new cancer over four years than people who did not take the drugs.
The CHMP will review the meta-analysis thoroughly, together with any other available non-clinical and clinical data … to clarify whether there is an increased risk of cancer in patients taking these medicines, the drugs agency said in a statement.
Most patients in the trials 86 percent looked at by the U.S. study were taking German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheims telmisartan, sold as Micardis.
Other drugs in the class include Merck amp Cos Cozaar, sold generically as losartan Atacand, or candesartan, made by the Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, Diovan or valsartan made by Swiss drug firm Novartis, irbesartan, jointly marketed by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb as Avapro, Daiichi Sankyos Benicar or olmesartan, and Solvay Pharmaceuticals Teveten or eprosartan.
The Medicines Agency said the CHMP would give an opinion after the investigation on whether changes should be made to the product information or risk-management plans for ARBs. source