Doctors trust a new drug. After all, it’s gone through rigorous and expensive safety tests, there are reassuring studies that demonstrate the drug is effective—even if they have been paid for by the drug company—and salesmen will reward a prescription or two of the new drug with a new PC for the office.
And there’s always the razzamatazz that accompanies the arrival of a drug that’s celebrated as the great new hope for some chronic condition. Everyone likes a new drug, especially the manufacturer, who looks to get a third of its profits from it.
But there’s a dark side to the lucrative market in new drugs. Nearly one in three of these new drugs will kill the patient or cause life-threatening side-effects—even though it has gone through years of safety trials.1
It then takes an average of seven years before drug regulators act—and sometimes a dangerous drug stays on the market for a
