Anticoagulants the Leading Reported Drug Risk in 2011

QuarterWatch, published by the Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in the United States, monitors domestic, serious adverse drug events reported to the FDA to “identify trends in drug safety, report signals for specific drugs, and to seek to improve the system”. The latest edition looks at the calendar year of 2011 where an estimated 2 to 4 million persons suffered serious, disabling, or fatal injury associated with prescription drug therapy, based on the analysis of  reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The most frequently identified suspect drugs in direct reports to the FDA were the anticoagulants dabigatran and warfarin, showing that inhibiting clotting ranks among the highest risk of all drug treatments.”