Even the Food and Drug Administration's commissioner urges consumers to be cautious. Closely question when your doctor wants to switch to a brand-new remedy. Some critics say the FDA approves new drugs too quickly. Drugs deemed breakthroughs, and drugs whose makers pay special fees to FDA, can get a speedier six-month review. Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen says the cases show FDA should ban drugs faster because warnings don't work.
Some computer systems can flag risky drugs.
But too often, even computers are wrong, Woosley complained. Shortly before the heartburn drug Propulsid was banned, he tested a highly touted pharmacists' system and found it allowed prescription of a deadly Propulsid-antibiotic mix.