Report Notes Rise in Adverse Drug Events, Patient Deaths

As reported by Shawn Rhea in Modern Healthcare, the Food and Drug Administration has announced that adverse drug events increased by 25% in 2008 compared with 2007. This data came from a new QuarterWatch report from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a Philadelphia-based not-for-profit dedicated to the prevention of medical errors.

• The increase was the largest over a one-year period since the FDA began collecting data in 1998.


• According to researchers, the FDA received reports of nearly 100,800 cases of serious injury related to drug use in 2008 compared with 80,600 in 2007. Those numbers included a 56% increase in patient deaths—from 9,700 in 2007 to 15,200 in 2008.


• The ISMP credited the surge in reported events to both the FDA's efforts to better identify adverse drug events and a slew of recalls on generic drugs such as heparin vials, and morphine and digoxin tablets during 2008.

As blogged about repeatedly in Secure Pharma Chain Blog it has been predicted that this increase is consistent with the increase in instances of counterfeit, adulterated and fraudulent medications within the domestic pharmaceutical supply chain. Although industry and regulatory authorities continue to use Track and Trace technologies to combat this issue, it is apparent that additional solutions are needed to protect the healthcare consumer.

Material screening by using EDXRD, allows the members of the pharmaceutical supply chain to verify and authenticate the medications inside of its unit-of-sale container without degrading or destroying the material inside the package. This solution can be used at all areas of the supply chain from raw materials, to production, packaging, distribution and dispensing and will authenticate both the medication and protect against medication errors.

To learn more about EDXRD technology as a solution to counterfeit, adulterated and fraudulent medications, visit: www.xstreamsystems.net.