Abstract
<h3>Side effects of cimetidine use coming under scrutiny</h3> In a cruel twist of fate for the manufacturers of the peptic ulcer drug cimetidine, a recent federal hearing convened for the purpose of expanding the official clinical indications for cimetidine use to include long-term maintenance therapy was transformed into a veiled indictment of the agent. The hearing was conducted by the Food and Drug Administration's Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee at the request of Smith Kline & French Laboratories, the principal manufacturers of cimetidine. Unfortunately for the company, recent articles in<i>The Lancet</i>(1:1005-1006, 1979), suggesting a link between cimetidine and gastric cancer, and in<i>The New England Journal of Medicine</i>(300:1012-1015, 1979), showing reductions in sperm counts after cimetidine therapy, altered the mood of the hearing from cooperation to interrogation. Nevertheless, the committee agreed that cimetidine is indicated in the long-term treatment of the most serious cases of duodenal ulcer.
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