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Dear Editor, It is a cruel irony that side effects of prescription medicines designed to help us are now one of our leading causes of death, costing the NHS £2 billion a year. One explanation for the poor safety record of so many drugs is our reliance on safety testing in animals. The government insists that all new drugs are shown to be safe in two species of animals before they can be given to humans. However, overwhelming evidence shows that new technologies based on human biology are more accurate and reliable, with the added bonus of being much faster and cheaper as well. The Safety of Medicines Bill calls for a comparison of animal tests with the latest human biology-based tests, to show which is the better means to protect patients. If animal tests are superseded, everyone stands to benefit: patients, the NHS, pharmaceutical companies and laboratory animals as well. Please ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion 475 (Safety of Medicines): contact Safer Medicines Campaign for a pre-written postcard: PO Box 62720, London SW2 9FQ, 020 8265 2880, www.SaferMedicines.org Yours faithfully, Your name and address |
World Patient Safety Day is grounded in the most fundamental principle of medicine – first do no harm “Medication Safety” is the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2022. Safer Medicines Trust is a patient safety charity whose mission is to improve the safety of medicines, so we very much support calls for “Medication Without Harm”. The World […]
The crisis of Alzheimer’s disease research: it’s time to embrace a new approach to help patientsThe problem Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a leading cause of death in the UK and along with other dementias, is responsible for almost 11% of all deaths in England.1 More than 209,000 new cases are diagnosed each year across the UK.2 It remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide3, affecting nearly 50 million […]
