HELP FOR CANINE URINARY INCONTINENCE

Research notes provided by Dr. Roberta Lee

As dogs get older, particularly females dogs, they tend to “leak” urine, especially upon arising. It is a frustrating problem for owners who want to keep a nice house AND their beloved house dog. Finally, here’s hope. Talk to your veterinarian.

QUOTE: PPA gets reprieve
Washington-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn’t advertising it, but veterinarians can buy phenylpropanolamine (PPA) despite a government-proposed ban of the drug and a recent dry spell in its manufacture.

The key is finding a pharmaceutical company still making it, says Marsha Larkins, ombudsman with the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM).

In November, FDA officials announced that PPA, a human-approved drug found in weight loss aids and nasal decongestants, eventually would be pulled from the market after a Yale study revealed a link between the drug’s use and hemorrhage stroke in women. Veterinarians also prescribed the drug off-label to treat canine urinary incontinence. When FDA officials advised
pharmaceutical companies to discontinue PPA production, DVMs lost PPA sources.

But it wasn’t long before at least one manufacturer restarted PPA output. According to Larkins, pharmaceutical companies and DVMs can apply for regulatory discretion with the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Regulation (CDER) to purchase or make PPA for canines. The regulatory discretion is temporary and will last until CDER bans the drug or pharmaceutical companies invest in testing PPA as a canine urinary incontinence treatment and receive FDA approval, she says.

At presstime, DVM Newsmagazine learned of one U.S. pharmaceutical company selling PPA products-PRN Pharmacal. The Pensacola, Fla.-based company has been allowed to continue marketing the product while its label is being reviewed, PRN representative Gary Cushing says.

The product is available through most veterinary distributors, but some compounding pharmacies, which do not fall under FDA guidelines, also are marketing PPA.

Wedgwood Pharmacy is one such company. Regulated by the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy, the compounding pharmaceutical firm sells PPA tablets and liquid in three strengths, a company spokeswoman explains.

For more details, see the March issue of DVM Newsmagazine.

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