“Why haven’t the fluoroquinolones (FQs) been taken off of the market?” Boy I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve had someone ask me that question or seen someone post in a Facebook group or on-line forum over the last decade. It really is hard for someone that has fallen prey to FQ toxicity to understand why something so utterly toxic is still being used to this day.
So, in this brief article I am going to definitely answer this question from both a research and a human nature perspective.
Nothing answers the research side of this question more clearly that a little known research paper entitled “Nonclassical Biological Activities of Quinolone Derivatives” written in 2012. This paper clearly elucidates why, from a research perspective, the FQ’s are not going away anytime soon.
The paper describes how the quinolone’s chemical synthesis is flexible and can be easily adapted to prepare new compounds and it is considered ideal for effective drug design. From the paper “…which makes quinolones an endless source of hope and enables further development of new clinically useful drugs.”
A Really Cool Erector Set
I believe that most researchers who work in drug development do not believe that the FQ’s are very toxic. On the contrary, like a kid with an erector set, they see endless possibilities in the 
construction of new antibiotics and other compounds. The researchers do not consider delayed toxicity that chronically disables thousands of individuals over the long term. No, they believe that the current formulary of quinolones has proven themselves in both safety and efficacy. A couple of years ago I wrote the article “Old Quinolones – The Dead My Rise Again” for Halloween. In the article I discuss how researchers at the University of Virginia School of medicine were attempting to re-engineer the failed quinolone Trovan, which was removed because of liver toxicity. One of the research assistants told me that “if we can re-engineer older quinolones to achieve the same level of efficacy and safety that Levaquin and Cipro have shown, the results will be ground breaking.”
Just like today, the researchers do not consider delayed long term toxicity that is associated with this drug platform. This toxicity is hiding in plain sight. In a brutal twist of irony they are using that very mechanism that causes long term disability in floxies, mitochondrial toxicity, as the mechanism to kill cancer cells today(1). But alas, the researchers only see what they want to see. To them the quinolones have already proven themselves and reports of side effects are just the cost of doing business. To them the adverse events fall within accepted norms.
Although the reasons for their viewpoints are numerous, it is mostly based on mountains of flawed research data tacitly influenced by both pharmaceutical biases and other things such as flawed cell lines used in research(6). Try telling a pharmaceutical researcher that FQ’s cause CFS or Fibromyalgia. Or even more extreme try to link FQ’s to ALS and Parkinson’s. I guarantee that from most you will get a look like you just told them the moon was made of green cheese.
Three Areas
Everyone who watches FQ’s from a safety perspective needs to keep their eyes trained on three areas now and into the future.
- First, Antibiotics, no surprise here. At the time of this writing there are several new quinolone antibiotics in the pipeline both oral and a new aerosol version (2).
- Second, Anti-cancer or Chemotherapy, we have seen the emergence of anti-cancer drugs currently on the market and current research into using FQ’s as anti-cancer agents(1)(3)(4)(6)(7).
- Third, Antiviral, although probably several years away, quinolone based antiviral platforms are being researched(5).
If you remember from Greek Mythology, Cerberus, the dreaded monstrous three headed ‘Hell Hound’ that guards the gates of the underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. With a dramatic 
flair, the quinolones represent our Cerberus or three areas of dread than has the possibility to do untold harm to thousands.
If researchers considered quinolones a failed platform our outcry would have pushed them into retirement or at least into relative obscurity. In my opinion from a development perspective, there is way too much money to be made and way too many avenues for development for the quinolones to go away anytime soon. As it stands, until researchers fully understand and connect the FQ’s to all the damage they cause, from post Ebola syndromes, to CFS and Fibromyalgia, from Gulf War to ALS and Parkinson’s, all three of these avenues of development I mentioned above will carry with them the risk of horrific adverse events for those unlucky enough to fall victim.
And The Biggest Reason of Them All
Above I pointed out three areas of research which will keep the FQ’s alive for the foreseeable future, and in the previous paragraph a basically alluded to the most overarching reason why they remain on the market even though the can inflict such horrific damages: Greed!
Yes, the most bassist of man’s evil desires is the number one reason for their existence. This is not just my opinion. Over the last several years a handful of floxies ferreted out the top reason why these, and a few other damaging drugs remained on the market and the information was made public. You can read one of the public articles here:
Don’t just give the above article a cursory glance. The data in the story is damning. It links the FQ problem to gross profits reaped by one of the world’s most lucrative and secretive hedge funds in the world. A hedge fund so powerful that it has links to both political parties, all the major pharmaceutical companies, and the FDA. A hedge fund that can make problems simply “go away.” They have the ability to control and shape research and public thought.
The data has been openly published about the egregious conflicts of interests that generate profits in the hundreds of millions for the select few, but alas, so many have heard these corruption tales before that it has become too common place. The only time its gets anyone’s interest is when a person, or their loved one, falls prey to the horrific nature of these drugs. Then they ask the million dollar question.
So the next time someone asks you ‘Why are these drugs still on the market?” send them here for the answer. One day these corrupt organizations will topple, but until then we are left battling in the trenches.
“And when the cure becomes the disease, we have truly created a monster of epic proportions.” ~ David, MyQuinStory
Tore my left achilles walking the beach on Sunday. Very painful. So that makes 2 torn achilles, 2 torn calf muscles and an aneurysm for me. Very sad how power and money trump any of our rights . Thank you for what you do David.
Answer in one word: Greed.
There is too much money to be made. These companies willingly turn a blind eye to the reports of life ruining side effects while redirecting attention to the positive outcomes of fluoroquinolones. The ethical thing would be for J and J, and Bayer to research these horrific permanent and sometimes progressive side effects (another description would be a man made disease state that has no cure) and to even provide support for the victims, admit that these drugs have great outcomes and sometimes horrifying outcomes. That would of course cut into the profit margin. They serve the almighty dollar. They exist to make money. Period.
In their unethical, hell bent lust for money they leave a wake of catastrophic destruction for those unfortunate souls that wake up in the torment of progressive and irreversible neurological, musculoskeletal and psychological damage. There is no treatment. The victim is bewildered when he or she discovers that the medical field cannot help them.
These companies will continue to poison humanity because they can. Nobody is holding them responsible. Nobody is stopping them. The correlation between cause (quinolone) and effect (body wide mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress resulting in a progressive disease state) hasn’t been proven to the degree that would incriminate them. Insufficient evidence so the criminal goes free to commit more crimes. The only way to get the evidence needed if from very expensive studies. There is no justice.
We have a spineless, toothless FDA that doesn’t protect the people adequately.