{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.023255813953488372, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006871035940803382, 'mean_word_length': 5.166123778501628, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Bendectin: the wrong way to regulate drug availability.

The recent announcement by Merrell Pharmaceuticals Inc. that they have decided to cease production of Bendectin, a doxylamine-pyridoxine combination widely used to treat navsea and vomiting in pregnancy, signalled a resounding victory over medical science for the sensationalism of mass media, lobbying groups and malpractice litigations. Merrell's decision originated from negative publicity and financial concerns, which were based on numerous lawsuits launched i. the United States as well as on the resulting increase in insurance premiums. Of major concern was the impact on the general public of widespread and misinformed coverage. Cary Lacheen, a spokesman for the Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington, DC was quoted as saying that the action of the drug company in withdrawing the drug from the market means "hundreds of thousands of pregnant women and their unborn children will be spared the risk of exposure" (The Globe and Mail, Toronto, June 10, 1983, page 2). Analysis of the medical and scientific literature, in fact, suggests that instead of having available a well studied drug with little or no teratogenic risk, patients now will be exposed to drugs for which we have far less information about safety during pregnancy. Bendectin's removal from the market is the latest development in a series of events related to its possible teratogenicity. Much of the controversy surrounding this topic arose from the well publicized suit launched in Florida by Michael and Elizabeth Makdeci against Richardson-Merrell Inc., the parent company in the United States (now called Merrell-Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.), for $12 million on behalf of their son David, who was born with limb deformities. His mother had taken Bendectin during the pregnancy. In a seemingly contradictory decision, reached in March 1980, the