Reports of serious adverse drug events continue to grow

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From MedWatch Reports from the US this week, comes this alarming report:

"The last four years have seen a 90% increase in the number of serious adverse drug event reports received by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This sustained and substantial growth in domestic case reports was unabated in the first quarter of 2012. ... Investigating the reasons for the four-year trend, we concluded that they could be divided into three groups. Reports for new drugs not widely used in 2008 accounted for 23% of the growth; increasing reports for drugs seen in all four years accounted for 40%. The substantial remainder (37%) was due to special circumstances involving a few suspect drugs that resulted in greatly increased numbers of reports. All the increase was attributable to reports from drug manufacturers rather than cases submitted directly to the FDA. We examine the reasons for the increase in detail in the full report."

Read the whole MedWatch Report here.