Media release: How Safe Are New Drugs? Market Withdrawal of Drugs Approved in Canada between 1990 and 2009

Open Medicine A peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A York University study of drug safety published today in Open Medicine shows that new drugs are often on the market in Canada for more than three years before they are withdrawn as unsafe, raising concerns about turning to the newest drugs available. The study by Joel Lexchin, an emergency room physician and professor of the School of Healthy Policy and Management in York’s Faculty of Health, appears in Open Medicine and in the attached PDF. “As a doctor my policy is not to prescribe new drugs until they have been on the market for at least three or four years since I don’t know how safe they will be for my patients,” said Lexchin. “Based on the findings in this study, doctors should not prescribe drugs during this period and patients should not take them, unless they are substantially better than existing medications.” Lexchin found that 4.2 per cent of the 528 new drugs approved in Canada in a 20-year period (Jan. 1, 1990 to Dec. 31, 2009) were later withdrawn. Of the 22 drugs withdrawn, 11 first had a serious safety warning and 11 did not. The median time between approval and withdrawal was almost three-and-a-half years. The study examined four 5-year periods and found no difference in the percentage of approved drugs that were eventually withdrawn from the market. This shows that the drug review system’s ability to detect serious safety issues and keep those drugs off the ...
Source: Open Medicine Blog - - Category: Medical Publishers Authors: Source Type: blogs