Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11356

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Hampton T.
Postmarket 'pharmacovigilance' program on alert for adverse events from drugs.
JAMA 2007 Aug 22; 298:(8):851-2
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/298/8/851

Abstract:

As reports of adverse events from commonly used drugs continue to come to public attention, critics have stepped up demands for new and improved postmarket surveillance efforts.

While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is rethinking its policies, independent “pharmacovigilance” endeavors are performing their own analyses and sounding alarms about potential dangers of numerous prescription drugs. Investigators in one program, called Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR), hope to improve patient safety through earlier detection of serious adverse drug reactions.

RADAR DETECTIONS

RADAR’s principal investigator, Charles Bennett, MD, a hematologist and oncologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, has spent more than 8 years tracking down serious prescription drug reactions. His interest began when a family friend was given a potentially fatal diagnosis in 1998. The patient survived, thanks to Bennett’s inquiries, which found that the life-threatening thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura was brought on . . .

Keywords:
Publication Types: News MeSH Terms: Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems* Cancer Care Facilities Drug Industry Interdisciplinary Communication United States United States Food and Drug Administration