On Sunday, February 17, the lead story on 60 Minutes was Bayer's heart surgery drug Trasylol. Kidney failure and heart attacks are the two main side effects associated with Trasylol according to the 2006 study by medical researcher Dr. Dennis Mangano. His observational study included over 5000 patients in 17 countries. Dr. Mangano told 60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley that "[I]t showed an important association between Trasylol use and kidney failure requiring dialysis and it showed a trend toward increased death in hospital in these patients."
The story also profiled the Trasylol patient Joe Randone. He went in for heart valve replacement surgery at the age of 52. Following surgery where Trasylol was put in Mr. Randone's IV, he suffered two heart attacks and kidney failure. Over an eight month period of time he had 19 operations. In August 2006 Mr. Randone died from complications. The family has filed a Trasylol lawsuit against Bayer. Dr. Mangano estimated that 1000 lives per month could have been saved if the drug had been taken off the market after his Trasylol study was published.
Pelley also interviewed Dr. William Hiatt, the chair of the FDA's advisory committee that was presented with the Mangano study in 2006. Dr. Hiatt stated that Bayer did not disclose their own study which confirmed Dr. Mangano's findings and Hiatt's FDA committee voted to keep Trasylol on the market. The following week the author of the Bayer study, Alexander Walker, blew the whistle on Bayer and presented the study to the FDA.
