Is a 3% Safety Recall Rate Acceptable?

The chronically excellent Pharma Marketing Blog has a great post on the drug industry’s reaction to an Institute of Medicine report calling for serious reforms. It is noted that 3% of drugs are recalled post-approval for safety reasons. Here’s Pharma Marketing’s take:

“Is a 3% Recall Rate Really "Good"?
The drug industry, through its trade association PhRMA, considers a 3% drug failure rate "good." Obviously, the IOM doesn't think a 3% failure rate represents a "good" system. In any other industry a 3% recall rate due to safety issues would be "bad."

In the airline industry, for example, if 3% of airline flights ended in fatal crashes, there would be no airline industry. The actual rate of "fatal events" in the airline industry ranges from 0.00 to 1.92 per million flights."

Much more over at the Pharma Marketing blog, where the posts have been especially interesting lately.