ABSTRACT:
A drug is, in the broadest of terms, a chemical substance that has known biological effects on humans or other animals. In pharmacology, a drug is "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being." Drugs may be used for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders. Drug disaster may be defined as the ill effect/hazards it causes or it may cause after it reaches the market for the patients. This article presents a broad review of drug disaster in the history of medicine. This becomes a major problem since it is observed after the routine and detailed research and clinical studies .In this review ,eight drug disaster cases was studied and the criteria for the study being drug category , use, disaster, manufacture and incidents .The drugs involved in this disaster studies are Sulfanilamide, Diethyl stilbesterol, Rofecoxib, Thalidomide, Fenfluramine/ Phenteramine, Cerivastatin, Troglitazone and Nimesulide. From the different cases we reviewed, all were either due to the incomplete and thorough clinical studies of the active pharmaceutical ingredient and the excipients as a whole or due to the inadequate post marketing surveillance of the specified product.