Cheap drug could save 100,000 lives

A generic drug that costs less than $10 a treatment may save as many as 100,000 lives a year by preventing people from bleeding to death after accidents, researchers said.

The medicine, tranexamic acid, is widely used to control bleeding in hemophiliacs, after surgery, and by women who have abnormally heavy menstrual periods. It had never been studied for accident victims, and doctors worried that it could raise the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other complications of clots.

The drug, given in two injections to patients suffering from bleeding after accidents, slashed deaths 10 percent compared with placebo, a study published in the journal Lancet found. The medicine reduced deaths from bleeding 15 percent, without significant adverse effects, according to the research, covering more than 20,000 patients from 40 countries.

"It's probably one of the cheapest ways to save a life there ever was," said Ian Roberts, the lead researcher, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. "The treatment is seriously cheap. It doesn't get much more effective than this."

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, based in London.

The researchers asked the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, to categorize the drug an essential medicine, on a shopping list many countries use to determine which products to purchase, Roberts said. The product costs about $4 a dose, with one given as an immediate injection and the second delivered intravenously over an eight-hour period.

In the study, 14.5 percent of patients given tranexamic acid died within four weeks of treatment, compared with 16 percent for placebo. About 4.9 percent given the drug died from bleeding, compared with 5.7 percent for placebo.