From the EU new rules on medicines surveillance

Many people know the story of Thalidomide, the medicine used in the ‘60s by pregnant women as anti-emetic and sedative, which caused many neonatal malformations all over the world: more than 20.000 babies were born with Focomelia’s Syndrome – a serious and rare congenital malformation, which doesn’t permit the development of a part of one or more limbs – because of a medecin which use during pregnancy had not been tested.
What is less known is that, because of the side effects of the medicines – the ones that do not emerge in laboratory tests, but show themselves only when used by a huger sample of people – almost 200.000 people die every year, with a cost of 80 billiards for the society; and moreover, according to Eu data, 5% of hospitalizations is due to the side effects, which are the fifth cause of death in hospital.
That’s why the European Parliament is going to update rules about “medicine surveillance”, with the aim to optimize the data collection and better inform people and doctors: giving more responsibility to all: if on the one hand all the new medicines will have to be carefully controlled for the first 5 years of sale, on the other hand, doctors will have to inform quickly about any problem.
This is solidarity as well.
Silvia Onnis
Translated by Veronica Atzei