FDA Crackdown: 500 Prescription Drugs to be Pulled
from the Market
By Phillipe Moser, Doctor of Pharmacy
Shared from InsidersHealth.com
If you've taken prescription medications for colds and
allergies, you could have inadvertently put your health
on the line. The FDA has announced plans to pull
500 ineffective prescription drugs off the market.
These drugs are cold and allergy medications
that have untested combinations of cough suppressing
ingredients and decongestants - a possibly dangerous
mix.
Why is the FDA just now cracking down on these
medications?
Good question. As most know, before prescription
drugs can be launched to the public they have to be
submitted to the FDA for scientific review. But
the drugs being recalled have slid under the radar for
years. These medications are those that pre-date
the FDA regulations. Up until now, they have escaped
scrutiny . . . but that's about to change.
What's most concerning is the fact that all this time
doctors have been prescribing unapproved drugs to their
patients. They simply didn't realize they were
unapproved. It's easy to make a mistake because the
drugs in question are labeled just like FDA approved
medications. Obviously, that is an acceptable
practice to all concerned. And several different
companies manufacture a lot of the older drugs. They
often use different ingredients and dosages.
Dangerous combinations.
According to Patti Gasdek Manolakis, a pharmacist and
consultant, "That's what makes them so dangerous: they
have these shared names but different ingredients in
different doses, so it's very easy for medication errors
to occur."
Among the drugs listed for recall our products like
Pediahist, a cold medicine labeled for children as young
as one month old. The FDA does not recommend giving any
type of cold medicine to children under two.
Some of the other drugs could be potentially dangerous
because they combine variations of the same compound.
These kinds of combinations can have negative side
effects, yet they've been widely available to patients.
This latest crackdown isn't the first. The recall began
in 2006 and so far the FDA has gone after 17 types of
medications and dozens of companies. In situations like
this the FDA often orders drug companies to stop making
and shipping the drugs and sometimes the FDA will seize
millions of dollars worth of medications. However there
is no law that prohibits the sale of unapproved drugs,
and rarely are these kinds of cases prosecuted.
Seriously?
Deborah Autor, director of the FDA's Office of
Compliance states, "We don't expect today's action to
have a negative impact on consumers. There are
multiple other products available to treat cold, cough,
and allergy symptoms."
Okay, that's all well and good. The problem is -
and the latest actions by the FDA prove it -you never
know what you're going to get when it comes to
prescription drug safety.
Quick Look at Philippe Moser:
Dr. Moser is a clinician, researcher, world traveler,
entrepreneur, and author with a hard-earned reputation
as one of the world's leading authorities on natural
healing.
Dr. Phillipe Moser is a pharmacist and world renowned
researcher in natural medicine. He began his career in
France in 1973 and has since studied immunology,
herbology, micro-nutrition and homeopathy. He has spent
the last 30 years creating cutting-edge botanical and
nutrient based formulas to free the body from disease
and promote optimum health.
Recently:
1996 - current Chief Pharmacist, Homeopathy, Vitarich
Laboratories Naples Florida
1986 - 1995 CEO Moser-Farmatec Herbal and Homeopathic
Remedies, Geneva, Switzerland
1978 - 1987 Founded and directed the largest
non-invasive medical facility in Nice, France
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