Who should support the costs of severe adverse drug reactions

Even if adverse drug reactions (ADRs) occur frequently, those that threaten life are rare. A serious ADR, whatever its type or the organ involved, was shown to occur in 2.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9–2.3%) of in-hospital patients in the USA and to result in the death of 0.19% (95% CI, 0.13–0.26%) of all hospitalized persons [Lazarou et al. 1998].