TGA off-label drug use warning

Posted 27 October 2021 AM

The TGA has issued a medicines safety update, warning healthcare professionals of the risk of atrioventricular block - including complete heart block resulting in cardiac arrest - when using octreotide off-label in Australia.

Octreotide, marketed in Australia by Novartis under the brand names Sandostatin and Sandostatin LAR, as well as various generic brands by Generic Health, Pfizer, Sun Pharma and Teva Pharma, is an octapeptide that mimics natural somatostain pharmacologically, though it is a more potent inhibitor of growth hormone, glucagon and insulin than the natural hormone.

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