| DRUG SIDE EFFECTS TOTAL $177 BILLION ANNUALLY SAN DIMAS, CA- The overall cost of prescription drug-related side effects now exceed $177 billion annually says a recent report in the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. This figure far exceeds estimates made in 1995 which indicated annual drug-related morbidity and mortality costs were around $76 billion. Frank R. Ernst, PharmD of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona, lead author of the report, indicates the total cost of drug-induced side effects far exceeds the cost of the medications themselves. [Journal American Pharmaceutical Assn. 41: 192-99, 2001] Over 3 billion prescriptions for drugs are written annually in the USA. Total U.S. drug sales in 2000 were estimated at $111 billion. The public is not likely to be aware of the serious side effects associated with many commonly-prescribed medications that are often mentioned in the news media. A review of news stories on the risks and benefits of medications indicated news reporters only mentioned potential harm to patients from drugs in 47 percent of news stories they wrote and only 30 percent of news reports mentioned reporters disclose a financial link to a drug manufacturer by an expert cited in a news report. [New England Journal Medicine 342: 1645-59, 2000] This 177-billion dollar revelation comes at a time when pharmaceutical companies are under fire for high costs and exorbitant profits. The Harvard Health Letter indicates 58 percent of retirees having difficulty paying for prescription medications. The drug companies claim they plow most of their revenues back into finding new drugs. But recent reports reveal that more than half of the research and development funds for new drugs come from taxpayers who underwrite the costs of many private pharmaceutical companies. [New York Times, April 23, 2000; Associated Press, July 24, 2001] The Office of Technology Assessment indicates more than half of the R & D money spent by drug companies is to "me-too" drugs that represent little or no treatment advance over pre-existing products. Furthermore, for every dollar pharmaceutical companies spend on research and development of new drugs, they are spending 50 cents for advertising currently available drugs says The National Institute for Health Care Management Research Institute. Consumer Reports indicates that nearly one-third of the prescriptions that physicians write for newly-introduced drugs are motivated by patient requests for the product. In recent years government and health insurance administrators have begun to evaluate medical care on the evidence of positive outcomes. According to the data at hand, the risks and costs exceed the benefits of drug therapy overall. Very little remedial action is expected over drug costs or side effects since the pharmaceutical industry has bought off lawmakers in Washington DC. Public Citizen reports that drug makers spent $262 million during the 1999-2000 election to influence lawmakers. Last year the Scripps Howard News Service reported that many members of Congress own ten of millions of dollars of drug stocks. |
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