Study suggests tranexamic acid could save thousands of lives annually in US.

The New York Times (3/21, A11, McNeil, Subscription Publication) reports, "For months, a" cheap "generic drug" called tranexamic acid "has been saving lives on America's battlefields by slowing the bleeding of even gravely wounded soldiers." However, "its very inexpensiveness has slowed its entry into American emergency rooms, where it might save the lives of bleeding victims of car crashes, shootings and stabbings - up to 4,000 Americans a year, according to a recent study." The drug is so cheap that it is not very profitable. It is not currently approved by the FDA as a treatment for trauma patients. The research, "published March 1 in BMC Emergency Medicine estimated that the drug could save up to 128,000 of those lives a year, 4,000 of them in the United States."