John Gueriguian

 John Gueriguian

"The drug (Rezulin) appeared to offer no significant advantage over other diabetes drugs already on the market, and it had a worrisome tendency to cause inflammation of the liver."- Overdo$ed America (page 87)

John Gueriguian was an individual that was a doctor with the FDA who decided to speak truth and say that a medication that was to be approved did not meet the requirements for approval. We learn that Dr. John Gueriguian was able to give warnings about not approving the diabetes medication, Rezulin in 1996. We learn that the new medication was trying to be fast tracked for approval and was selected to participate in a study by the NIH to know if it could help against diabetes.

We learn that Dr. Gueriguian was able to describe after careful consideration and review that the medication did not meet health standards and that the medication could not be approved. We learn that Dr. Gueriguian was taken off the review board for Rezulin and told that he could not participate in the review any longer. We learn that the medication, Rezulin, was approved in haste, and resulted in hundreds of individuals being affected negatively including having liver inflammation. 

We learn that Dr. Gueriguian was able to describe the truth and not allow himself to speak lies. While not being able to be a part of the review board that approved the diabetes medication, we know that he spoke truth. We learn that the review board did not want to include Dr. Gueriguian in the review of Rezulin due to speaking truth about the dangerous medication. We learn that Rezulin was marketed as a great diabetes medication, while actually leading to significant health complications including liver disease and other health complications.

We learn that both the NIH and FDA had approved the medication, and yet Dr. Gueriguian was removed from the safety review board by the FDA. This was due to a complaint made about Dr. Gueguerian due to him speaking truth and choosing to describe the truth about an unsafe diabetes drug. We learn that he was a veteran of the FDA with 19 years of experience that describes the incongruencies concerning the approval of medications while having safety review boards. We learn that this happened in 1996 and tells us about the importance of persevering speaking truth instead of telling blatant lies. The drug was approved in 1997. We learn that the medication was not taken off the pharmacies until 2000. Rezulin was not to be approved according to Dr. John Gueriguian because it was not better than other diabetes medications and caused liver disease.