Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs

[Bozita]

Source: NYTimes

Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: October 26, 2009


WASHINGTON — Federal drug officials have long been criticized for failing to force drug makers to complete studies proving that their drugs work as hoped, and Congressional investigators on Monday released yet another report pointing out that some of these studies remain undone many years after being promised.

The result is that doctors and patients remain unsure whether some critical medicines used to treat illnesses like cancer and heart disease are actually beneficial.

Concerns about this situation reached such a pitch several years ago that Congress passed legislation in 2007 giving the Food and Drug Administration greater power to force drug makers to complete their promised studies and to fine companies that fail to follow through.

In a report released Monday, the Government Accountability Office said that from 1992 through Nov. 20, 2008, the food and drug agency asked drug makers to complete 144 studies associated with 90 drug applications, and that drug makers had completed just two-thirds of the requested studies. Fifteen of the 52 uncompleted studies have been pending for more than five years, and several have been pending for more than eight years, the report said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/policy/27fda.html?_r=1&ref=us

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Charles Grassley wants a real genuine working FDA?

Whoda thunk it?

[izquierdista]

1. Maybe.....just maybe

If they took all those advertising dollars and gave them to the R&D lab to follow up on their studies.......nah, that would make too much sense.

[Bozita]

2. Methinks if teevee ads for Rx drugs were banned, network news would disappear.

I like the parts of the ads where they mention the possible adverse effects of paying for and taking the drugs. Often the side effects are worse than the problems they allegedly cure.