FDA officials disagree on safety of angiotensin receptor blockers

Top officials at the US Food and Drug Administration and a senior safety reviewer have been quarreling over whether there is sufficient evidence to link angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) with an increased risk of lung cancer, the Wall Street Journal has reported.1

Internal documents reviewed by the newspaper show that Thomas A Marciniak, medical team leader in the division of cardiovascular and renal products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, has called on the agency to issue stronger warnings on the popular drugs, citing a review he conducted that found a 24% increase in the risk of lung cancer in patients who take ARBs.

“The FDA needs to inform patients and physicians about the ARB lung-cancer …