Billions of Dollars Wasted on Medication Injuries

Great Britain, like the United States, is finding that the Big Pharma paradigm of health leaves plenty of injured victims in the wake of its path. They report over 1,000,000 medication-induced injuries requiring emergency room treatment at the cost of 2 billion pounds (or about 4 billion U.S. dollars). This cost did not include drug injuries that occurred while in the hospital.

Janet Woodcock of the FDA has stated “1.3 million people are accidentally injured by medical therapy in the U.S. and that the misuse of medicines cause thousands of preventable hospitalizations every year and results in estimated costs ranging anywhere from $20 to $75 billion.”

Various official estimates of medication induced injury are around 1.3 million in terms of people needing to go to the hospital and another 1.3 million for people already in the hospital! FDA admits these figures are estimates. Great Britain has 1/5 the population of the United States, along with a health care system that tracks patients more effectively. Based on population comparison it is more likely that 5,000,000 Americans are heading to the emergency room with Big Pharma injuries, and that’s 20 billion in costs right there.

All these errors are not just about medical mistakes. They also are about the drugs themselves and the failure of the FDA to demand postmarketing safety of almost every drug on the market today. Big Pharma has been allowed to play Russian roulette with the health of Americans and others around the world. The sickness industry is a costly global problem. The Big Pharma paradigm of health needs to be reeled in and targeted for truly appropriate uses – not given free rains to promote themselves as preventive medicine for cholesterol, bone health, and other baby boomer issues - when such concepts do not produce health and are an outright fraud that also carries a heavy injury risk.