Medicine

Reading Prescriptions
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
What looks like gobbledygook to most laypersons and has been Latin shorthand to many medical professionals is now being replaced by clearer ways to write prescriptions to avoid medication errors.

Over the Counter Drugs: Pain, Pain Go Away
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Consumers may welcome the growing array of pain relievers available without prescription, but this profusion can cause confusion. Knowing the differences - and similarities - among these products is crucial to making wise choices.

Fight Against Heroin Addiction
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA and other government agencies are working with pharmaceutical companies in a new approach to finding anti-addiction medication. One result is the approval of Orlaam, an alternative to methadone, only 18 days after FDA received the application.

Division of Over the Counter Drug Options: Controlling Dandruff
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
If you're troubled by dandruff, that snowy, dust-like stuff that falls from scalp to shoulders, you're not alone: Nearly everyone has dandruff to some degree. Dandruff is treatable with over-the-counter (OTC) products and causes no general health problems

Children's Anesthesia
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
To a child, pain and fear are inseparable. How to safely relieve both is a subject of growing debate and research. Only recently has a narcotic drug been approved specifically for children, and its use is controversial.

Avoiding Problems: Liquid Medication and Dosing Devices
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Using household spoons to give liquid medication can cause problems, but so can some devices specifically designed to give medicines. Here's how to take advantage of the devices' benefits while avoiding the hazards.

Going Metric: American Foods and Drugs Measure Up
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Realities of the global marketplace have increased the urgency for this country to join most of the rest of the world in using metric measurements. FDA is taking steps to make sure food and drug labels are not out of step.

Unproven Medical Treatments Lure Elderly
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Sixty percent of those who try untested medical treatments are over age 65, according to one report. Not only can these treatments be a waste of money but, according to FDA, they can also be dangerous.

Aspirin: A New Look at an Old Drug : Part 2
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Because of its risks, aspirin is not approved for decreasing the risk of heart attack in healthy individuals. Even Hennekens isn't ready to recommend an aspirin a day for everyone, although he headed up the celebrated 1988 Physicians' Health Study

Aspirin: A New Look at an Old Drug
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Scientists continue to investigate what seem to be an unending number of possible new uses for the world's most widely used drug. There was a time when only one brand of aspirin existed, and its manufacturer's 1920s ad campaign was intended to assure

User Fees to Fund Faster Reviews : Part 2
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The idea of FDA user fees resurfaced beginning in 1982 but failed to gain significant support. In 1992, things changed. As budget proceedings for FY 1993 began, FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D., testified before Congress that the user fee issue was

User Fees to Fund Faster Reviews
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
An average of 22 months goes by from the time a company applies for approval to market a new drug or biologic application to when FDA reaches a decision. But that's about to change, thanks to a new source of revenue to expand FDA's review staff.

Ways to Speed Treatments to Patients : Part 3
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA and sponsors of priority drugs may meet at the earliest stages of clinical testing to plan studies that will help develop the information necessary for a final decision on a product's approvability.

Ways to Speed Treatments to Patients
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
In an effort to help seriously ill people, FDA is devising new ways to get drugs and biologics to them more quickly--sometimes even before final approval.

Medicines from Space : Part 3
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
One NASA spinoff comes from work on the motion sickness astronauts experience. Drug injections are impractical, since the medications may froth under weightlessness. Vomiting can make the use of oral medications also unworkable.

Medicines from Space : Part 2
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Other phenomena occur more slowly in space than on Earth. One example is the growth of protein crystals from biological cells, which are important in the development of treatments for cancer, AIDS and diabetes.

Medicines from Space
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Experience and experiments on space flights are yielding answers for treating earthly ills, from osteoporosis to diabetes to abnormal blood pressure. A principal objection to space manufacturing is the expense of transporting products back to Earth

Just What Is a Biologic, Anyway?
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
It used to be that most common biological products were vaccines and blood products. But today, the emergence of biologics with drug-like actions and other uses have made the answer to this question more complicated.

Smart Drugs and Drink May Not Be Smart
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Young professionals in some parts of the country are turning to so- called smart drugs and drinks in an effort to be hip or get ahead. But there's no evidence that they work, and they may be harmful.

Equivalence of Generic Drugs : Part 2
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
In 1990, the agency instituted product-specific, pre-approval inspections of manufacturing sites listed in a sponsor's application. During inspections, FDA reviews the step-by-step manufacturing process and monitors how much and what kind of active