Adverse reactions to pills more than doubled last year

Adverse reactions to medicines reported to the Health Products Regulatory Authority more than doubled last year, it has emerged. The number of reports — 10,398 — represents a 138% increase on the 4,402 received in 2017 and the HPRA said the increase was largely due to a change in reporting requirements.

The legal obligation for marketing authorisation holders to report all serious adverse reactions was extended in November 2017 to include “non-serious” reports. Such reports will have initially been notified to the companies by healthcare professionals, patients or consumers.