FDA & medication safety

[rarchie24]

Has anyone been following the FDA in the last few years? In 1992 a major structural change initiated a change in the mission goal of the FDA. Apparently the mission goal as stated is still to approve only drugs that are effective and safte, but the real primary mission of the FDA has become to get drugs to market. PBS recently televised an hour long documentary on their "Frontline" documentary series called "Dangerous Prescription

This documentary explains how drug companies failed in reporting known dangerous drug reatctions and conducted their corporate dealings with an evident disregard for truth, safety, and responsibility. For details that will probably anger you, check out the website

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/

The major change that occurred is that the FDA before was fully funded through the USA Treasury. Since 1992 an increasingly larger share of the FDA funds come from charges to the drug companies for each approval application submitted. In short, the governing body of the FDA is reluctant to upset the people who pay their bills. The PBS documentary does an outstanding job in showing what the uninteded consequences have been. I have seen data to suggest that Congress shares the blame, in that historically, Congress used to have regular reviews of the FDA, but now have had only two such in the last 10 years. Please be skeptical of the new FDA drug approvals -- it is not the gold standard of safety we were used to.

[Geeg]

I have a hard time with believing any research now, since so much of it is bought and paid for by the big drug companies. I am going back to old fashioned OTC remedies-for myself anyway!!!