fdaFDA Approval is Meaningless

Politicians, drug salesman and stockholders are always bitching about jury awards and trying to limit patients' rights to sue companies for killing them. The recent Vioxx verdict will be used as an example on FOX for a few months, to show how out-of-control juries are.

I agree that juries are made up of dumber people than we want to find. They know nothing about the case they're given to decide, which in the case of drugs and health is unforgivable. I heard one of the jury members say, "It looked like Merck tried to do the best they could, until the memos surfaced about tweaking the studies." The defense attorney said "Look- this is an FDA-approved drug!"

But in order to grant FDA approval, the FDA only requires the company to provide data to justify it. Lots of data. Lots of studies. To win FDA approval, Merck held some studies in the dark. Kept them quiet. Like the studies that showed increased suicide in antidepressant trials. And since the drug companies are the only parties to the drug sale represented in the Cabinet, the Congress and the lobbies, they can and do.