ATA News Release 2009

ATA and FDA jointly sponsor PTU meeting

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jointly sponsored a public meeting in Washington DC on April 18, 2009 entitled “The Role of Propylthiouracil (PTU) in the Management of Graves’ Disease in Adults.” This meeting was held in conjunction with the ATA Spring Symposium on “Thyroid Dysfunction and Pregnancy: Miscarriage, Preterm Delivery and Decreased IQ” and the ATA Research Summit entitled “Thyroid Hormone in Pregnancy and Development.” The ATA/AACE Hyperthyroidism Guidelines Task Force was invited to attend the PTU meeting as this group is finalizing recommendations concerning the use of antithyroid drugs, including during pregnancy and childhood and the role of monitoring hepatic function in patients on PTU. A written report regarding this meeting, authored by the Task Force, is currently under review for publication in THYROID. Publicly available comments regarding this meeting may now be found at JCEM http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jc.2009-0850v1 and AACE http://www.aacepatientsafetyexchange.com/editorial/index.php?id=25. Additional action resulting from this joint meeting includes the invitation by the FDA of the ATA/AACE Hyperthyroidism Task Force to propose revisions for the package insert labeling for both PTU and MMI.