Safety Takes Backseat to Marketing

According to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, aggressive marketing campaigns put pressure on regulators to approve pharmaceuticals for wider demographics than they were tested for. Sounds like Vioxxwas just the beginning.

Here's a tantalizing excerpt from the report.

According to the 2003 report of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, a survey of CDER reviewers revealed that 66% lacked confidence in the FDA's safety monitoring of marketed prescription drugs, and 18% had felt pressure to approve a drug despite reservations about its quality, efficacy, or safety. In 2006, the Government Accountability Office found that the "FDA lacks clear and effective processes for making decisions about, and providing management oversight of, postmarket safety issues."