Florida pharmacy errors resulted in the staff to incorrectly prepare a horse drug, which led to the death of 21 polo horses last weekend, the Associated Press reports. An official at Franck’s Pharmacy in Ocala, Florida, told the AP that an internal investigation found the strength of an ingredient in the medication given to the horses was incorrect. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating the incident. The horses apparently collapsed shortly before a U.S. Open match, shocking spectators at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington.

Tragic as the death of these horses is, it is another reminder of the pharmacy errors that have been made in recent months and years. Pharmaceutical manufacturer errors have had adverse and in many occasions, fatal effects on users. Over the last few years, we’ve seen several cases where pharmacies and drug companies have made errors, either giving the patient the wrong medication or the wrong dosage.

In April 2008, the pharmaceutical company Actavis Totowa LLC. recalled all lots of its prescription heart drug, Digitek, because some of the drug’s tablets contained twice the approved level of the active ingredient. The tablets, which were used to treat heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms, were made with double the appropriate thickness and contained twice the approved level of active ingredients. Toxicity from this dangerous drug because of the high dosage, causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness, high blood pressure, cardiac instability or even death.

In May 2007, a Dallas pharmacy company called Apothecure Inc. made a drug 10 times more potent than intended killing three people who received it at an Oregon clinic. The drug compounding pharmacy company said an employee committed a weighing error while making the drug colchicine. Three people received the defective drug as injections to treat back pain and suffered fatal personal injuries.

In the drug industry, the margin for error is zero. A large drug manufacturer is expected to test a drug completely and comprehensively before it is put in a market. As we’ve seen, large companies — Merck, Actavis Totowa and most recently Genentech (with its drug Raptiva) — have failed to do their due diligence. They have failed their consumers. These pharmacy and lab errors should not happen. Such negligence — whether it affects human beings or animals — should never be acceptable.