VetLessons

25/05/2025

I wrote this lecture for veterinary professionals, but I've done my best to make it accessible to all. I tell the stories of real dogs and their families who faced severe, sometimes fatal, side effects after Librela administration. While discussion and sharing is strongly encouraged, please engage respectfully and consider the profound impact these experiences have had on the affected families.

Watch time: 31 minutes
Source article: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1581490
Link: https://youtu.be/ywu11n8KXWo

00:00 Did Jesus receive a fair trial?
02:01 Librela on trial
02:27 No conflict of interest
02:44 An unbiased expert witness
04:34 History of human aNGF drugs
06:55 Rapidly progressive osteoarthritis
07:11 Why would low NGF harm joints?
07:41 How did the FDA protect humans?
08:47 Inadequate veterinary trials
11:00 RPOA "only affects humans"
11:27 What makes me an expert?
12:39 Examples of severe problems
15:47 How did we design our study?
16:35 Key study findings
19:39 The FDA find 22 safety signals
20:08 Don't assume problems are rare
23:19 When should you stop Librela?
24:14 Zoetis' denials
26:05 Downplaying neurological problems
26:50 Deflecting blame onto vets
27:24 Does running accelerate OA?
30:23 Affirmative action

23/05/2025

The integrity of adverse event reporting is crucial. A key finding from our recent research highlighted a serious concern: drug manufacturers have the ability to modify adverse event reports – including the diagnosis, severity, and outcome – without informing the healthcare professional who submitted the report.

Our study focused on musculoskeletal adverse events in dogs receiving Librela, and found a deeply troubling pattern: two-thirds of adverse event diagnoses chosen by Zoetis specified "arthritis" or associated clinical signs like "lameness" – signs of the very condition the drug is licensed to treat. This is highly relevant, as the FDA has already identified "lameness" as a statistically significant safety signal for Librela.

A key factor here is the limited terminology available in the Veterinary Dictionary for Drug Regulatory Activities (VeDDRA). Crucially, the term rapidly progressive osteoarthritis (RPOA), used by multiple specialists who submitted adverse event reports in our study, is not currently listed in VeDDRA. While Zoetis could have solved this problem by asking the European Medicines Agency to add RPOA to the dictionary, they have so far opted not to.

Even more concerningly, Zoetis has been reclassifying serious adverse event reports as "non-serious”, including multiple reports submitted by veterinary orthopaedic specialists. This is reflected in approximately half of reports of ligament ruptures, luxations (dislocations), limb collapse, and septic arthritis (a serious joint infection) being filed by Zoetis as "not serious”. They even filed one-third of fractures (broken bones) as "not serious" and claimed that several dogs diagnosed with bone cancer (a tragically malignant condition) had "recovered”.

This practice involves a drug manufacturer who has twice been cited by the FDA for producing false and misleading information about Librela (see comments). To safeguard vulnerable animals and allow their caregivers to make an informed choice, the public urgently needs Zoetis to stop making excuses and start being transparent and accountable.

Source: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1581490

16/05/2025

Newly published research reveals a deeply concerning issue for animal welfare: important discrepancies between Librela’s adverse event reports submitted by attending veterinarians and the final reports filed by Zoetis.

Seemingly driven by their baseless accusations of adverse event “over-reporting” by veterinary professionals (see comment), Zoetis has been downgrading the severity of reports submitted by veterinary specialists – frequently reclassifying serious events as "not serious" and, in cases where the appropriate dose was administered by veterinarians, reporting them as "overdoses."

Please read our open access paper and consider the implications of our findings for animal health and the integrity of the veterinary pharmacovigilance process: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1581490

10/05/2025

Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2025.1581490/abstract

15/03/2025

The 'close door' buttons in most elevators have been obsolete since the 1990s, but because we crave agency, manufacturers continue to install them to help us feel we’re in control. We’re invited to push the placebo button to give us the reassuring illusion of functionality. Other examples include the 'walk' buttons at many pedestrian crossings and glucosamine-chondroitin joint supplements.

10/07/2024

A recipe for low-risk dogs?

Learn more at https://youtu.be/hzya4tGh_Ks

03/07/2024

What is hip dysplasia?

Learn more about exercising puppies: https://youtu.be/hzya4tGh_Ks

28/06/2024