Indiana Accident News

FDA To Launch New Prescription Drug Safety Efforts

In the United States alone, 1.4 million adverse drug events occur each year – prescription drug injuries and fatalities that occur due to improper usage of prescription drugs, overdose errors, and other similar problems. Many health professionals and safety advocates believe that lives can be saved not by taking some prescription drugs off the market, but simply by making labeling more accurate and increasing the accuracy of drug warnings. As of now, medical officials say that avoidable prescription drug problems cost the country $4 billion each year.

This week the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new program designed to identify the most serious dangerous prescription drug issues and pinpoint ways to decrease harmful incidents where prescription drug takers are harmed by their medicine. The program, called the Safe Use Initiative, FDA officials will look at the information, labeling, and instructions, given to prescription drug users and see where better or more information could be provided. One drug in particular, the common pain reliever acetaminophen, will be examined in an effort to minimize overdose problems that can be extremely harmful and even deadly. The Safe Use Initiative will also examine liquid medications – which often lead to dangerous dosage errors.

All in all, the program will strive to cut down on serious injury due to medical misuse while providing patients, doctors, and pharmacists with more accurate warnings, instructions, and dosage information. Recently, the FDA has been under fire for being lax in their approval of new prescription medications – and for being slow to acknowledge dangerous drugs already on the market.

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