Public Citizen Launches WorstPills.org, a Website Listing Dangerous Prescription Drugs

Public Citizen Launches WorstPills.org, an Online Database Listing Dangerous Prescription Drugs and Alternatives; New 'Worst Pills, Best Pills' Book Also Released

1/12/2005 1:47:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Valerie Collins, 202-588-7742, LuAnn Canipe, 202-588-7759, both of Public Citizen

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Public Citizen has launched a new Web site, http://www.WorstPills.org, that provides consumers with comprehensive information about 538 prescription drugs and warns them of 181 drugs that are unsafe or ineffective.

The searchable, online database also provides information about drug pricing, outlines 10 rules for safer drug use, has monthly issues of Public Citizen's Worst Pills, Best Pills newsletter and enables users to sign up for e-alerts about newly discovered drug dangers. People can search the site by drug, medical condition or by drug-induced disease.

The Web site contains the entire contents of the just-published edition of the book, "Worst Pills, Best Pills," including a new chapter on dietary supplements. The book has sold more than 2.2 million copies since 1988 and is available in bookstores this week.

Public Citizen has a strong track record of identifying dangerous drugs well before federal regulators take action to ban or put warnings on these drugs. In April 2001, Public Citizen warned consumers against taking Vioxx because it increases the risk of heart attack. This fall, Merck pulled the drug from shelves, citing its increased heart attack risk. Vioxx was the ninth prescription drug to be taken off the market in the past seven years that Public Citizen had previously warned consumers not to use.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which receives well over $100 million a year in funding from the drug industry largely to review drugs more rapidly, doesn't do a good job of protecting people from medications that can seriously harm or kill them," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "We provide consumers with indispensable and potentially life-saving information that they can't get anywhere else."

Said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, "The major drug manufacturers have bombarded consumers with misleading TV and print advertising about prescription drugs, so consumers have a compelling need for unbiased information about safety and effectiveness. This effort is part of Public Citizen's decadeslong commitment to protecting consumers from products that can harm them."

A year subscription to the Web site, http://www.WorstPills.org, costs $15, which includes a monthly e-newsletter and electronic updates.

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Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

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