Drugmakers Hurry Sales, Delay Safety Studies

By Michelle Chen, The NewStandard. Posted February 9, 2007.

Fast-tracked pharmaceuticals are on the market for an average of almost two years without beginning required safety tests, and the FDA is letting it happen.

The federal government has admitted that pharmaceutical companies it is supposed to regulate have not yet made good on hundreds of promises to test the safety of drugs already approved for the market.

According to a notice published Friday by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), from October 2005 through September 2006, companies had yet to initiate 71 percent of outstanding "post-market" safety evaluations that companies have promised to undertake for currently approved products they are already selling to consumers.