Our Daily Meds : 100,000 Americans killed each year by drugs taken as directed says Melody Petersen

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Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:00 am Email this article
"There is study that the FDA [ US Food and Drug Administration ] often sites, that 100,000 Americans die every year from their prescription drugs that they took just as the doctor directed," Melody Petersen, author of a new book called Our Daily Meds: How The Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines And Hooked The Nation On Prescription Drugs told Bill Moyers.

"This isn't when a doctor or pharmacist made a mistake, or the patient accidentally took too much," Petersen continued.

"This is when everything supposedly went right."

"So that just shows you how dangerous these products are."

In her book, she also notes that drug-related deaths are often hidden and never reported on death certificates.

"A government scientist estimated that [ Vioxx ] may have killed more than 40,000 Americans," she notes.
Former New York Times Journalist

Melody former covered the drug industry for the New York Times

Melody, who formerly covered the drug industry for the New York Times, revealed this last Friday night, May 16th, 2008, in an interview with Bill Moyers on his PBS television program Journal.

REFERENCE

Petersen M. Our Daily Meds : How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Book’s Website

 

 

Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Book - Our Daily Meds