Keep away from pharma is my motto. Take care of your health, don't overstress it and don't expect pharmaceuticals to bail you out. Seek help from alternative therapies before you develop serious symptoms - homeopathy, acupuncture, traditional chinese medicine.

Alison Robinson, Reading, UK

I am also allergic to antibiotics and some other substances. I have Stevens-Johnston Syndrome (SJS). This is clearly stated on my notes and my wrist and ankle bands when I am in hospital. So far in 2007 I have been written up for penicillin 12 times but 9 different doctors in 4 different hospitals AFTER I have told them all more than once about my SJS. When I refuse to take drugs the staff write up a refusal and tell me I am unco-operative.

Mt last admission was as a emergency. Anti-biotics were prescribed. I didn't take them and told the staff why, thy looked at my notes and said I should have been issued with a red band. I had red bands on my wrists and ankles - all on full view as I was naked..... The doctor refused to come back to check the prescription and I was discharged from hospital within an hour with no further treatment. I still have the problem that put me in hospital. An complaint is being persued by the ombudsman but I doubt if anything will change.

Patch , Galashiels, UK

I never heard of an allergic reaction to a safe effective inexpensive homeopathic medicine. And it cleared 30 years of my psoriasis in 3 months, later on dealt with septicaemia and peritonitis, and cracked my kidney stones. Longer lives through homeopathy which has seriously improved my health

Francis Treuherz, London, England

Again let's have a go at the pharmaceutical companies, yes they make a profit, but who in business doesn't.
When you consider though that AstraZeneca spend $16 million every day on research, they need to make a healthy profit.

Mike Jones, Swansea, UK

It is the fault of the pharmaceutical industry who have been the subject of a government investigation into their influence; The government who have taken little notable action on the investigations results – other than to use the unfavourable findings to negotiate lower prices for the most commonly prescribed drugs including blood pressure, cholesterol and antidepressant medications – making it appear that influence & prescribing has been curtailed as net costs have reduced; And the medical profession who are gullible & complacent enough to believe the incomplete manipulated (as verified by the government investigation) pharmaceutical industry study results they are fed as irrefutable proof of a drugs efficacy & safety, seemingly with the government and health authorities’ blessing because of the revenue they generate. As the yellow card ADR reporting system is voluntary -- if recognised and acknowledged at all -- true numbers of adverse events will never be accurately recorded

Mardi Bennett, Colchester, Essex

In the case of these 11 previous comments, how many, would you like to guess, are corporate shills? Doctors have good intentions and 99% of them go into medicine wanting to help people. Corporations are not human and only have only the incentive to make profit. And yes, we all know that humans run the corporations. Our evil reptilian overlords will be overjoyed with your delusion.

George, Nagoya, Japan

The pharmaceutical companies are the most profitable companies in the world by a huge margin. They make these profits by selling dangerous chemicals to people on the premise that they will benifit your health. In the vast majority of cases the damage done greatly outweighs any benefits.

Google for a book called "Rockefeller Medecine Men" and learn the truth about the criminals who run the Pharma Companies.

Ben, Leeds,

I am a science student fully aware of the need to test medicines in animal models. Sorry if it sounds controversial but I hope that people like Jennifer Hynes don't ever take any paracetamol, pain killers or suffer from anything worse so she has to take medication. If it wasn't for animal models and the extremely well regulated testing, there would be many more people dying.
Or do you suggest that medicines are taken away all together?
The reasons why people die when taking medicines is due to genetic differences and interactions. Believe me, scientists are working hard on it, not moaning about it!

Cris, London,

I work for a pharmaceutical company and deal with reports of these adverse events. Nearly all of the serious ones are caused by errors on the part of the doctors. They prescribe drugs needlessly, but more worryingly they prescribe the wrong medications for the illness they are trying to treat and even more worryingly they prescribe drugs to patients with conditions that are dangerous when these drugs are taken, and they prescribe mixtures of drugs even though these drugs are known to cause serious interactions. This is not the fault of the companies because they make doctors and hospitals aware of these facts, but the doctors just do not seem to care because they face few repecussions. Recently I found out that a doctor had prescribed a certain drug to treat diabetes even though this drug is not meant to treat diabetes and carries a warning stating that diabetics should not use this drug! The patient nearly died!

anon, Europe,

The increasing use of generic preparations could also have a bearing on this problem. There is increasing evidence that some generic preparations are not of equivalent therapeutic efficacy when compared with the proprietary product.
The problem is compounded as many active ingregients and excipients are manufactured in the far east and it is dificult to ascertain the complete formulation of many products.
Compounding ,packaging and marketing may all be done in different countries making comparison between products almost impossible, particularly as the same manufactured product may be marketed by several different companies.
It is therefore difficult for a patient to be aware if the preparation contains anything to which he or she is allergic and the generic brand is changed on a regular basis.

Laurie, Faro,

Medicines are over prescribed the Government should be looking at ways to stop prescribing these medications as apposed to prescribing them which as we all commonly know cause more harm than good. Its time this Country wakes up and gets to grips with these matters. For the amount of complications they cause from all the news we here it hardly seems worth giving out the medications in the first place and im sure a lot of people believe this is true

Matthew, Bradford,

This is hardly surprising given that they are tested and declared safe on non-humans... when will science learn? To abuse other creatures for our own purposes is immoral and just plain wrong, and of course, we read things like this.

Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, England

Last week I was called to my GP to discuss my osteoporosis medication - strontium ranelate (Protelos). I was informed there had been a report of deaths as a reult of taking this and was consequently advised to stop taking it until I had discussed the risks further with my Consultant in March 2008.
If anyone seeing my comment is taking this medication I wld recommend querying it with their GP/consultant.

Jan, Hove, UK

This year I went into an NHS hospital and had two red wrist bands put on to boldly signify that I was allergic to penicillin. After three identical interviews from a nurse, a junior doctor and a consultant I was given a large dose of what I found out very soon after to be penicillin and spent the next 10 days with the entire surface of my body red raw when my skin erupted totally to the concoction. I could barely move.

Don't blame the medicine when it is used in error.

jj, Cambridgeshire, UK

964 is not 'almost half' of 'nearly 3000'.

Rob, Reading, UK

This is all very well.....but people neglect to tell you HOW MANY lives are saved by taking these drugs.
As normal its a politian scoring points by frightening the populus.
The adverse effect from NOT taking such drugs as Aspirin in most cases is suffering a clot, I think most people know the adverse effect of a clot......you become a politian...

Karen, Brighton, Sussex.

I am a coeliac and I must not eat the gluten found in wheat, barley and rye.

If I buy a prepared meal from a supermarket, it is clearly marked if it contains gluten and I know whether it is a safe purchase. I believe this is the law.

But if I go to a pharmacy and buy say a cough syrup, I have no idea whether it contains gluten. And in many cases neither does the pharmacist, despite the best of their efforts.

All medicines should contain details of the allergens they contain. If they can do it for food, they can do it for medicines.

James Miller, Newmarket, UK

It is recorded that when the doctors in Canada went on strike many years ago the death rate went down.
The drug-chemical industrial complex have a vested interest in keeping people sick because they make money out of it.
I once heard that ICI are one of the UKs' main manufacturers of carcinogens. They are also one of the main companies manufacturing anti-cancer drugs. Every cancer patient earns them £70,000 per year at least.
They are not in business out of the goodness of their heart, They are there to make money.
Hopefully one good thing about the EU is that companies will be accountable at last.

Keith B, Wigan, UK