A British expat who claims his wife died after taking a deadly painkiller says the prescription drug should be banned as Spain launches an investigation into dozens of deaths allegedly linked to one of its most common drugs.

Graeme Ward, 82, told CNN Nolotil was being distributed “like candy” I He is at home in Marbella, on the Costa del Sol, nearly two decades after his wife Mary was admitted to intensive care after taking painkillers.

Spain’s High Court said on Thursday Survey link One of the country’s most popular brand-name drugs has killed dozens of people – many of them reportedly British and Irish expats.

The painkiller has never been licensed for human use in the UK, but 27.8 million pills were sold in Spain in 2022, making Nolotil the most purchased brand-name drug that year, according to Catalan newspapers We buy the report said.but About 400 people living in Spain have reported serious side effects – Many of them are expats from Northern Europe.

At least 40 British and Irish citizens die after taking painkillers, campaign group Association of Patients Affected by Drugs claims, adding that it believes a genetic component due to inheritance modifies the risk of Nolotil – although this has not been confirmed by independent scientific research.

Mary Ward, who died in March 2006 aged 59, was given the drug after surgery while suffering from agranulocytosis (a decrease in white blood cells, leading to a severely increased risk of infection).

Ms Ward, from Harlow, Essex, was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2000, shortly after the couple decided to move to Spain and around the time she first underwent breast cancer treatment Seven years later.

“She went for a routine check-up and they found a lump in her other breast,” Mr Ward said. “My son convinced her that there was an excellent doctor in Spain who could perform a complete mastectomy with reconstruction. Unfortunately she decided to do that rather than return to the Royal Marsden in London where we had been before.”

Mr Ward, who continues to work as a wedding officiant in Marbella, said his wife spent their first year in Spain having tests and undergoing radiotherapy before having a mastectomy.

“I didn’t know he wasn’t an oncologist,” he said of the doctor. “He knew very little about cancer. He was basically a plastic surgeon.

“When he started surgery it was clear there was no viable skin to build a replacement from. In fact, there should be absolutely no surgery of any kind for 18 months or so after radiotherapy – so he made the mistake of starting out This error.

“Then because he didn’t know what to do, he gave her a huge dose of Nolodil and told me there was nothing he could do for her and that I should get her out of the hospital.”

After returning home, Mr Ward realized she was seriously ill and took her to the main hospital in Marbella. Doctors discovered her white blood cells were rapidly decreasing, he said.

Ms Ward was admitted to intensive care and placed on a ventilator for eight months.

“She gradually came to, but for a year after that she was unable to speak and was still in pretty strict care,” he said.

The couple were rushed to hospitals across Spain in the hope that medical professionals would know what to do, but the prolonged use of a ventilator took a toll on Ms Ward’s body. Ward added that she died after the breathing tube “ruptured her throat” and suffocated.

“It was all due to the injections she received that basically destroyed her immune system. I guess she was lucky to live as long as she did. But it wasn’t a particularly happy last few years of life.”

Mr Ward has campaigned to stop the use of nolodil, also known as metamizole, since his wife’s death and welcomed the High Court’s decision to ban the painkiller amid continuing reports of complications linked to it. Drugs are investigated.

“I don’t think Nolodil should be offered like candy, and that’s still the case today,” he said. “You can go into a drugstore and buy as much as you want without any real warning at all.

“It should be banned, or at least severely restricted in how it can be used.”

Mr Ward said a common concern with health authorities supporting the prescribing of nolotil was that there were other painkillers that provided the same therapeutic benefit.

Cristina Garcia del Campo, 58, a medical and legal translator in Jávea, Alicante, was one of the first to start investigating the drug because she noticed A large number of British and Irish expats have developed severe symptoms after taking the drug.

Ms. García del Campo said she observed several of her clients with similar infections, checked their medical reports, and realized “they all had one thing in common: They were all taking Nolodil.” “.

The translator for Patients Affected by Drugs said she alerted several expat Facebook groups across the country and found many people were reporting problems with the painkillers.

“I started getting more and more cases,” she said, claiming she now has more than 400 cases on her books. “When I had about a hundred, I went to meet with the Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios (Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices – AEMPS),” she told me. I They failed to act on her information.

“I would like to see it banned by the British and Irish, and generally people from countries where it’s already banned,” she said.

Nolotil is also not licensed for use in Australia, the United States or Sweden.

However, Ms García del Campo said she was not opposed to a complete ban on the drug in Spain.

Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer of Nolotil, said I Patient safety is its “top priority and we continue to actively monitor the safety of our medicines and notify relevant health authorities when new safety information emerges.”

It added: “We welcome any information that contributes to medical scientific knowledge and helps us improve the risk-benefit profile and safe use of medicines.”

Metamizole is widely used in Spain as an analgesic and antipyretic (to reduce fever) when other alternatives are ineffective, the company said.

“Agranulocytosis is a very rare adverse reaction that has been known for decades and is described in detail in the approved prescribing information for this drug.”

It noted that the Spanish medicines regulator had recently launched two reviews into metamizole and its link to agranulocytosis. In 2018, AEMPS reminded healthcare professionals that the drug should only be used short-term at the lowest effective dose and to monitor for agranulocytosis.

I The Spanish Ministry of Health has been contacted for comment.