Death toll from anticancer drug rises to over 100 in Japan

TOKYO, Japan - Nearly 500 people experienced debilitating side effects from an anticancer British-made drug called Iressa (in file photo), resulting in more than 100 deaths in Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Dec. 25. As of Dec. 13, of the 358 people who experienced side effects such as pneumonia and lung damage, 114 died, the ministry said.

Sample
PDF Preview

Product Code
ILEA001094809

Registered date
2002/12/25 00:00:00

Credit
Kyodo / Kyodo News Images

Media source
2002 Kyodo News

Media size
1864 × 1649 pixel

Resolution
dpi

Deployment size
838.04(KB)*

Special instruction

*File size when opened in Photoshop, etc.

Similar Images & Videos

Man who traveled from W. Africa tests negative for Ebola

TOKYO, Japan - Photo taken Oct. 28, 2014, shows the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, to which a man, who traveled from West Africa and showed elevated body temperature upon arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport, was admitted the previous day. The Canadian journalist tested negative for the Ebola virus but will remain hospitalized and under observation for a few more days, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Yuji Kodama, leprosy activist, dies at 82

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in June 2013 shows Yuji Kodama, a prominent fighter of discrimination against former leprosy patients, in a wheelchair in front of the health ministry in Tokyo. On May 11, 2014, Kodama died of lung cancer at a sanatorium in Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture. He was 82.

Therapist training for at-home mental health services

TOKYO, Japan - Photo taken March 7, 2014 shows Yoko Kawasaki (C), head of the National Federation of Mental Health and Welfare Party in Japan, and Grainne Fadden (2nd from R), representative of the Meriden Family Program, among other people exchanging views in Tokyo.

Retrial for 1961 murder case rejected

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in June 1961 shows Masaru Okunishi (C), accused of poisoning 17 people, resulting in the deaths of five women, on March 28, 1961, at a local community meeting in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, during the first hearing on the case at the Tsu District Court in the prefecture. The Supreme Court said Oct. 17, 2013, it has turned down a petition by Okunishi, now an 87-year-old death-row inmate, for a retrial over the case.

Novartis division head Epstein

TOKYO, Japan - David Epstein (L), division head at Novartis AG, the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant, holds talks with Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura (R) at the ministry in Tokyo on Sept. 26, 2013. Tamura summoned Epstein and sharply criticized the firm for triggering a scandal involving Novartis Pharma K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Novartis AG. The unit allegedly engaged in deceptive advertizing for the blood pressure-lowering drug Diovan by citing a study based on manipulated clinical data.

Firm raided over workers' bile duct cancer

OSAKA, Japan - Investigators from the Osaka Labor Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare enter printing firm Sanyo-CYP Co. in Osaka on April 2, 2013, to search the office on suspicion the company neglected its duty to take proper care of its workers' health. Seventeen of them suffered from bile duct cancer, eight of whom died.

Writer of well-known A-bomb comic book 'Barefoot Gen' dies

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in July 2011 shows Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Hadashi no Gen" (Barefoot Gen), an iconic Japanese comic about the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing. Nakazawa died of lung cancer on Dec. 19 at a hospital in the western Japanese city, people close to him said Dec. 25, 2012. He was 73.

Writer of well-known A-bomb comic book 'Barefoot Gen' dies

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in June 2008 shows Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Hadashi no Gen" (Barefoot Gen), an iconic Japanese comic about the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing, standing near the A-Bomb Dome (shown in the background) in Hiroshima. Nakazawa died of lung cancer on Dec. 19 at a hospital in the western Japanese city, people close to him said Dec. 25, 2012. He was 73.

Plaintiffs of Iressa cancer drug case

TOKYO, Japan - Three deceased patients' relatives who sued the Japanese government and the Japanese unit of British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC, demanding compensation for the side effects caused by the lung cancer drug Iressa, walk to the Tokyo High Court on Nov. 15, 2011. The high court on the same day ruled the government and AstraZeneca K.K. are not responsible for damages, overturning a lower court ruling. The plaintiffs sought a combined 77 million yen in compensation.

AstraZeneca ordered to pay damages over side-effects of Iressa

OSAKA, Japan - Hideki Shimizu (R), a plaintiff who demanded compensation over side effects caused by the lung cancer drug Iressa, speaks at a press conference in Osaka on Feb. 25, 2011, together with Akio Chikazawa, a plaintiff in a similar suit filed in Tokyo. The Osaka District Court the same day ordered the Japan unit of British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC to pay a total of 60.5 million yen to nine out of 11 plaintiffs, including Shimizu.