For example, one outcome of the protracted debate over the safety of the sedative triazolam was a new drug label warning that it should be prescribed for only 7 to 10 days. Instead of waiting passively for anecdotal information to filter in, the government needs to aggressively look for drug involvement in reported birth defects, heart problems and other common disorders that are frequently caused by prescription drugs. In the same way that the world's public health specialists aggressively seek out new strains of influenza, FDA needs to be aggressively seeking out new side effects of drugs. Rather than strengthening the U.S. government's drug safety programs, the present Congress has recently diminished the powers of the FDA to monitor drug safety. Congress now allows drug companies to pay fees which FDA uses to speed up the approval process for new drugs.
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