Senate Approves Tighter Policing of Drug Makers

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

Senate Approves Tighter Policing of Drug Makers

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: May 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 9 — By a vote of 93 to 1, the Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would give the Food and Drug Administration new power to police drug safety, order changes in drug labels, regulate advertising and restrict the use and distribution of medicines found to pose serious risks to consumers.

The bill calls for a fundamental change in the philosophy and operations of the drug agency, requiring it to focus on the entire life cycle of a drug — not just the years before its approval — as well as the experience of patients who later take it.

Under the bill, the government would establish a surveillance system to track the adverse effects of prescription drugs. Scientists would analyze data on tens of millions of patients, looking for signals that particular drugs pose serious risks.

In passing the measure, the Senate sent a clear signal that it wanted stronger action by the agency to protect public health. Senators said the bill responded to a widespread loss of confidence in the ability of the agency to protect consumers against the dangers of drugs like Vioxx, a popular painkiller withdrawn from the market in 2004.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/washington/10drug.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[TwilightGardener]

1. Bernie Sanders, standing on principle. Gotta admire that.

[Telly Savalas]

2. Call me cynical, but if most of the GOP Senate caucus and PhRMA

support a measure, I worry that there's stuff in it which is seriously flawed. I'm too lazy to research and do a detailed analysis myself.

The public clinical trials database is nice though.

[kaygore]

3. There is a poison pill that will enable the FDA to make vitamins and supplements

prescription drugs, thus removing the public's option to have control on their own health. The FDA will be able to control any product that claims to heal and remove it from the market unless there is multi-million dollar research to support the claim. Taken to the extreme, the FDA could outlaw holy water! The FDA is about illness and the profits therein. It and our Congress is controlled by big Pharma. There are many other very BAD aspects of this new law.

http://www.newstarget.com/021838.html

http://www.newstarget.com/021834.html

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron24.htm