Amid growing debate about appropriate regulation of drug safety by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a new study released today in the journal Health Affairs [subscription required] compares mortality risks posed by drugs to risks related to work, transportation, and recreation.

The mortality risks posed by Vioxx to treat arthritis and Tysabri to treat multiple sclerosis –drugs that have recently received scrutiny — are comparable to or exceed the risk of dying in a car, working as a truck driver, or rock climbing. Even the widespread prophylactic use of aspirin poses a fatality risk on par with the risk associated with driving a car or working as a fire fighter, say study coauthors Joshua Cohen and Peter Neumann of Tufts-New England Medical Center, who stress that risks and benefits must be considered together. Their study is one of many in the May-June 2007 Health Affairs issue, a thematic volume entitled “The Shifting Benefit-Risk Landscape,” to explore risks and benefits in health care.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 3:10 pm and is filed under All Categories, Pharma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.