Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration began posting a list of prescription drugs under investigation for potential safety problems.The first list is a bare-bones compilation naming 20 medications and the potential issue for each. It provides no indication of how widespread or serious the problems might be, leading some consumer advocates to question its usefulness, and prompting industry worries that skittish patients might stop taking a useful medication if they see it listed.
Food and Drug Administration officials said they are trying to walk a fine line in being more open to the public while avoiding needless scares. Congress, in a drug safety bill passed last year, ordered the agency to post quarterly listings of medications under investigation.
The FDA emphasized that the listing of a drug and a potential safety issue does not mean that FDA is suggesting prescribers should not prescribe the drug or that patients taking the drug should stop taking the medication.
The table which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/5bu2om lists the names of products and potential signals of serious risks/new safety information that were identified for these products during the period January – March 2008 in the AERS database.
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