Why was a life saving drug overlooked for half a century?
4/29/202639 min
Tranexamic acid (TXA) has enormous potential to prevent deaths from postpartum haemorrhage, but until very recently it's been overlooked. Professor Haleema Shakur Still tells Alisha Wainwright how she stumbled on TXA's untapped potential, and the drug's journey from being an undervalued discovery in post-war Japan to a groundbreaking treatment in modern-day Nigeria. Professor Nike Bellow and Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi share their efforts to make TXA more accessible to communities, while Haleema explains how drug trials have revealed a hidden side to postpartum haemorrhage – one that could prevent cases before treatment is even needed.
Mentioned in this episode and further reading:
- WOMAN trials: looking at the effect of the drug tranexamic acid (TXA) on bleeding, and the best ways to give it (https://thebloodtrials.org/womens-health-trials/)
- The missing evidence: anaemia, postpartum bleeding and maternal death, Blood Trials, LSHTM (https://thebloodtrials.org/the-missing-evidence/)
A word of thanks to all the WOMAN Trial collaborators, Professor Ian Roberts, who co-led the WOMAN Trials alongside Haleema, trial teams in London, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania and Zambia and the women and families who make this work possible.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsHaleema Shakur-Still· Guest0:00
Tranexamic acid has this amazing story. It really is a story of struggle and, um, misogyny and everything bad you can imagine in science.
Alisha Wainwright· Host0:11
[upbeat music] Discovery doesn't always happen in a straight line. Sometimes it's a longer path shaped by who gets listened to and who doesn't. Tranexamic acid, or TXA, is one of those stories. First discovered in 1960s Japan, it took five decades for the drug to be used for its original purpose: preventing postpartum hemorrhage, which is still one of the leading causes of maternal deaths worldwide. Since the early 2010s, a series of trials by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have been exploring how it can be used to save women's lives. They have made life-changing discoveries, but their path hasn't always run smooth.
Haleema Shakur-Still· Guest0:57
We went in believing something, and the result shocked us into learning even more.
Alisha Wainwright· Host1:06
This episode, we are diving into the incredible story of the Women Trials with Halima Shaker Still, one of the lead investigators across the full woman research portfolio. I'm Alisha Wainwright. This is When Science Finds a Way, a podcast about the science changing the world. Okay, let's meet Halima. I'm so excited to