Are your prescription drugs FDA approved? Maybe not!

[shyflower]

Seems like these days Americans are pummeled by TV advertisements tell us to ask our doctors about this drug or that one. However, this CNN report (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/09/26/unapproved.drugs/index.html?iref=newssearch) shows that even your doctor may not be fully aware of the safety of the drugs he prescribes.

Apparently all a drug needs to be marketed is a ten digit number from the FDA and these numbers are granted before the drugs are FDA approved.

[ses5909]

I've learned so much about the FDA and pharmaceutical companies this past week. I've been spending a lot of time with my sister who is a pharmaceutical sales rep!

[Sagewing]

I'm not much for bashing the corporate world, but the pharmaceutical world is really a mess. Between the lobbyists for big pharma and the health care companies, the FDA barely stands a chance. Then add in the consumers, who are more and more willing to demand a drug from their doctor/insurance just because it offers a quick fix for something and you have a recipe for corruption.

Honestly I don't see nearly as much awful behavior from the insurance companies, despite the fact that they are vilified everywhere. It's the drug companies that never seem to stop pushing everyone to bring them more and more money without cease.

The drug industry has brought some incredible advances to the human condition and certainly the medical advancements have been staggering. But lately, there has been a slowdown on advances and increasing amounts of maintenance/relief meds that are cashcows for the industry.

Worse, the drug industry loves to spout the mantra that they NEED to charge exorbitant prices so that they can continue the expensive R&D process and FDA trials in order to bring these incredible drugs to us. Research shows, however, that they aren't spending the money that way at all - the profit taking just goes higher and higher so the math doesn't add up.

Despite what many say, the US health care system is outstanding in most ways. The problem of non/underinsured is obviously a big one, but I'd rather be here than anywhere if I had a medical emergency. Earlier this year I had such an emergency in Japan and if I hadn't made it back to the US I'd probably have died there because they don't have the treatment I needed.

But, the drug companies are infested with greed.

[shyflower]

I guess what really ticks me off is that those who make homeopathic remedies are obliged to add that they are not FDA approved in their advertisements. While I'm not big on homeopathic, I do understand that some of them have been used successfully for centuries without ill effects.

However, the major pharmaceutical companies are allowed to flood us with advertisement after advertisement for prescription drugs that have terrifically adverse side effects (stroke, heart attack, death anyone?) and don't have to disclose whether they are FDA approved or not. According to the CNN report, they don't even have to disclose it to the pharmacies that stock their drugs or to the physicians who prescribe them.

Now, isn't that just a bit peculiar that the FDA rubber stamps synthetics that haven't been tested or proven effective and policies the remedies that have?