(NaturalNews) A renowned academic who is the co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, one of the world's top organizations for assessing medical evidence, believes that Big Pharma is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.

Dr. Peter Gotzsche, who arrived in Australia recently to talk to citizens Down Under about their use of prescription medications, estimates that some 100,000 Americans die each year from the side effects of medications they have actually taken as directed.

As reported by Health Nut News, many of the most commonly prescribed medications, such as antidepressants and painkillers, are actually incredibly dangerous, and are killing more people than need be.

"It's remarkable that nobody raises an eyebrow when we kill so many of our own citizens with drugs," he said, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

See a real-time count of pharmaceutical deaths at PharmaDeathClock.com
 

Hitting the elderly especially hard

His biggest knock is against anti-depressants and painkillers such as ibuprofen, diclofenac and celecoxib. He also said he has problems with their claims that they are anti-inflammatory, because he says that claim is not supported by scientific evidence.

As the Australian paper continued:

Another, sold under the brand name Vioxx, was withdrawn after it emerged it had caused up to 140,000 cases of serious heart disease in the US alone in the five years it was on the market - during which time its manufacturer, Merck was withholding information about its risks. About half the cases were thought to be fatal.