Stanford Calls for More Info on Drug Labels
August 14, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
Stanford University School of Medicine says it’s about time that prescription drug labels reveal what isn’t known.
The Stanford researchers are asking the FDA to require drug makers to say how new medications compare with already existing similar treatments.
Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, notes that manufacturers of drugs and medical devices benefit from an “information gap that develops as more and more products are tested against placebo, but not each other.” Stafford is the lead author of an essay published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on August 12. The essay calls on the FDA to require more informative labeling of new drugs and medical devices.
Researchers believe that if the labels were required, consumers would see that there’s no evidence many new drugs are more effective than older ones. Since newer drugs are often more expensive, this information could be important to making drug decisions.
It’s hoped that new labels comparing drugs would also motivate drug companies to carry out clinical trials testing a new product’s effectiveness over existing therapies.
When you’re prescribed a new drug, do you ask if it’s better than older therapies?
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