Drugs withdrawn from worldwide pharmaceutical markets over the past four decades due to safety reasons. The list of drugs, including indication, the duration of marketing, and reasons for withdrawal were examined. Among the 121 products identified, 42.1% were withdrawn from European markets alone, 5.0% from North America, 3.3% from Asia Pacific, and 49.6% from markets in multiple continents. Distributions of these withdrawals in each decade were: 12.4% from the 1960s, 16.5% from the 1970s, 39.7% from the 1980s, and 31.4% from the 1990s. Unfortunately, since the denominators (number of drug approvals) were not readily available, an accurate rate of withdrawal could not be reliably calculated. The most common categories of drugs withdrawn were: Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (13.2%), nonnarcotic analgesics (8.3%), antidepressants (7.4%), and vasodilators (5.8%). The top five safety reasons for withdrawals were: hepatic (26.2%), hematologic (10.5%), cardiovascular (8.7%), dermatologic (6.3%), and carcinogenic (6.3%) issues.