NEWS - FDA to increase warnings, advisories on side effects

[Guest guest]

The Wall Street Journal

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN

February 29, 2008 9:30 a.m.

FDA to Increase Warnings,

Advisories on Side Effects

WASHINGTON -- Top Food and Drug Administration officials said this

week consumers should expect to see more advisories and warnings from

the agency about drug-side effects.

For years, the agency has issued dozens of so-called Medwatch safety

alerts reports each year, aimed at health-care professionals, to

inform them of changes to drug labels, and that practice still

continues. But since Merck & Co.'s Vioxx was pulled off the market

more than three years ago, the agency has stepped up the number of

public-health advisories aimed at consumers and more recently has

started issuing so called " early communications, " informing the public

that the agency is looking at a possible problem.

Previously, the agency wouldn't inform doctors or consumers about a

problem until it was fairly certain it was linked to a particular

product.

**************************************************

Read the rest of the article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120429284988702957.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

--

Not an MD