Terence Young's daughter, Vanessa, was prescribed Prepulsid for a stomach issue, and Prepulsid was the same drug that ended up killing her in 2000. Since that day, it has been Young's mission to bring drug safety to the general population's attention. On Oct. 30 in the Law School, Young brought his mission to USC.
Now the Chair of Drug Safety Canada and supporter of Vanessa's Law, Young spoke to USC's students and faculty about drug safety and what the pharmaceutical industry doesn't tell the public.
When a doctor prescribes you a drug, the chances of them having read the label on that drug are slim because the the label were written by lawyers to provide risk management in case something were to happen.
"Before starting a drug, you should ask yourself, 'Does the potential benefit of the drug exceed the potential risk for you?'" Young said.
In North America, prescription drugs taken as prescribed in hospitals are the fourth leading cause of death. In describing this matter, Young used a quote by Dr. Neil Shear: "It's OK to kill patients with prescription drugs as long as it's not too many."
Young claims that in many instances, instead of getting a dangerous drug pulled of the market, the pharmaceutical companies provide a label change that many doctors do not read. Additionally, one drug can have many names attached to it, making it difficult to research the issue.
As a result of these risks associated with prescriptions, Vanessa's law was enacted in November 2014.
The law's main goal is to strengthen the oversight of pharmaceutical companies and to be able to hold the companies liable for what they do. But Young says to date, the law has not been enforced as it should be.
Young hopes that the law will be better enforced, especially when it comes to creating a system for outside investigations of safety issues.
"You don't let airlines investigate their own crashes," he said. "Yet we let Health Canada investigate the drugs that they told us were safe and effective."