I’ve always had the impression that all the accessible drugs (medicines) in the market are FDA approved, until I’ve read the recent report at The Washington Post.
In the FDA’s effort to force manufacturers either to seek approval or stop selling their products. Apparently, thousands of prescription drugs unapproved by the FDA are on the market, some posing clear health risks to patients.
"Right now, many unapproved drugs represent a public health threat, because consumers wrongly assume that these widely marketed and available drugs are approved and have been found to be safe and effective by the FDA," said acting FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach.
"While we want to ensure continued patient access to necessary treatments, as a physician I feel strongly that patients expect and deserve all their prescription medicines to be FDA-approved," he said in a statement. "These unapproved drugs have bypassed the agency approval process through which FDA ensures that marketed drugs are safe, effective, properly manufactured, and accurately labeled."
This is indeed alarming. How will consumers know that the medicines they’re buying are FDA-approved?
Read the full report at The Washington Post.
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