The toxicity of pharmacological treatments remains a major clinical challenge with important health implications. Best estimates from the medical and scientific literature suggest that 0.12%–0.22% of hospital admissions result in death due to an adverse drug reaction (ADR) corresponding to 100,800–197,000 deaths annually in the European Union [1]. A review of European observational studies reported the highest percentage of fatal ADRs was 0.49% of all admissions in studies where an ADR was the reason for hospital admission or visit to the emergency department and 0.52% of all admitted patients in studies reporting the percentage of patients who experienced an ADR during hospitalization [2].
