More than 2,000 Australians die each year due to drugs, with prescription medications the most common cause of death, not illegal drugs.

Nobody should die from taking medication prescribed by their own doctors, dispensed by their local pharmacist and regulated by the Department of Health. 

One Australian dies every 5 hours and 75% of people die from accidental overdoses. An overdose can occur when taking a medication as recommended, because everyone metabolises drugs differently. For too many people it causes death and this risk can be 15 times higher when two or more medications are prescribed, like Valium and Endone. 

Pharmaceutical medications linked to deaths in 2018:

• Benzodiazepines (e.g. Valium) 899 deaths
• Opioids (e.g. Endone) 647 deaths
• Anti-depressants (e.g. Prozac) 591 deaths
• Anti-psychotics (e.g. Lithium) 318 deaths
• Anti-convulsants (e.g. epilepsy meds) 174 deaths

An independent report details how the Consumer Medicines Information (CMI) for these drugs have illegally excluded multiple deadly side effects, including the risk of an overdose death. For example, the Valium CMI describes an overdose as:

“..you may feel drowsy, tired, confused, dizzy, have  difficulty breathing, feel weak or become unconscious.”

The Valium warning provided to health professionals details the overdose side effects of respiratory depression, coma and death.

You simply cannot assess a risk that you don’t know about. You cannot follow safety advice if it has never been given to you. This has resulted in deaths to vulnerable Australians who simply sought help for medical conditions.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) did not reject the findings of the reports analysis of over 20 different medications, but has failed to take any action or to even further investigate the report’s findings. In responding to the report Professor John Skerritt the head of the TGA explained why deadly side effects have not been provided to Australians:

“..the inclusion of additional technical details would require a high degree of medical literacy (which sadly is comparatively low in Australia) and could have the potential to confuse and delay action by patients.”

Deaths from these prescription medications each year exceed deaths from car accidents, benzodiazepines and opioids alone have killed over 20,000 Australians between 2001-2017. The side effects not included are the ones that kill people. Not telling people these side effects clearly isn’t saving lives, it isn’t going to improve people’s knowledge of the risks, and more importantly, it is against the law.

This petition calls on the Minister for Health - Greg Hunt to investigate the failure of the TGA to regulate the Consumer Medicines Information (CMI), and investigate the information that has been excluded from the CMIs in breach of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989. Most importantly it calls on Minister Hunt to hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible to account for these deaths, and to urgently update all CMIs.

Fatal overdoses are a tragedy we can prevent, but it starts with holding Professor John Skerritt accountable for the multiple failures of the TGA.

Warning

Do not stop taking a prescribed medication without discussing it with your doctor. Information can also be obtained by calling the NPS Medicines Line on 1300 633 424 or the Adverse Medicines Events Line on 1300 134 237 for advice. If you need support for any medical concern, including mental health matters, please contact your doctor. Lifeline also provides a 24 hour support service 13 11 14
or www.lifeline.org.au

Statistics Source: Penington Institute Annual Overdose Report 2020