Many people think the Food and Drug Administration’s role is limited to licensing new drugs and medical devices, but it actually has a post-marketing role as well. Doctors and hospitals all round the US are required to report any and all adverse side effects to drugs. It’s not uncommon to find that drugs can pass through clinical trials involving only thousands of participants, but show side effects when millions start taking them. Obviously, many problems come from those who abuse the drugs in one way or another but, every now and again, serious problems emerge over time. Once a pattern emerges, the FDA can either change the labels on the drugs to give stronger warning to patients or, in the worst cases, withdraw the licenses for the drug to be used. Since withdrawal can have a dramatic effect on the manufacturer, the FDA prefers to improve the level of warnings unless the problems are too severe to ignore. Read More...
It’s a sad fact of life that war is good for business. Companies that manufacture weapons need to prove their technology works. So small wars are excellent testing grounds for both the current and new ideas. If everything performs as it should, other governments around the world will buy the systems for their own armed forces. But wars are not just about the latest guns, armored vehicles, ships or airplanes. They also test the people who fight. Despite the drive to keep fighters safe by using drones and other systems to kill the enemy from a safe distance, human beings still have to go face-to-face with the enemy in combat. Once you put people into real fighting situations, they get injured. For a while, this was not a problem but, as the engagement in both Iraq and Afghanistan has continued, the strain on the volunteer forces has increased. Military personnel are being rotated more rapidly with less time to recover from injury. As this is being written, President Obama is considering whether to increase the contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan. If an increase is authorized, this will put even more strain on the armed services. Read More...
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