FDA Creates Web Page with Drug Safety Information for Patients, Health Care Professionals
Consolidates information in one access point
Consumers and health care professionals can now go to a single page on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Web site to find a wide variety of safety information about prescription drugs. The Web page, http://www.fda.gov/cder/drugSafety.htm, provides links to information in these categories:
Drug labeling, including patient labeling, professional labeling, and patient package inserts;
Drugs that have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that their benefits outweigh their risks;
A searchable database of postmarket studies that are required from, or agreed to by, drug companies to provide the FDA with additional information about a drug's safety, efficacy, or optimal use;
Clinicaltrials.gov, a searchable database of clinical trials, including information about each trial's purpose, who may participate, locations, and useful phone numbers;
Drug-specific safety information, including safety sheets with the latest information about the drug as well as related FDA press announcements, fact sheets, and drug safety podcasts;
Quarterly reports that list certain drugs that are being evaluated for potential safety issues, based on a review of information in the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS);
Warning Letters, Import Alerts, Recalls, Market Withdrawals, and Safety Alerts;
Regulations and guidance documents;
Consumer information about using medications safely and disposing of unused medicines;
Instructions how to report problems to the FDA through its MedWatch program;
Consumer articles on drug safety; and
The FDA's response to the Institute of Medicine's 2006 report on the future of drug safety.
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drugSafety.htm



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