FDA, is Jardiance Really That Swell?

If ten years ago you read my blog post titled, FDA, How Stupid Do You Think We Are?, you’ll know my belief in them, or lack thereof, hasn’t changed a whole lot. Let’s just say I don’t have a ton of trust in their decisions to approve certain drugs.

If you watch television or listen to the radio, I’m betting you’ve seen or heard the abundance of commercials touting any number of drugs for any number of ailments. Sure seems to be an epidemic of ailments, don’t you think?

Anyway, I saw a particularly disturbing commercial last week, so I started paying better attention. At the end of it, a narrator quickly reads a list of the not so great side affects, probably hoping nobody was paying attention— except this nobody was.

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A Billion Dollar Business

A while back I blogged disparagingly about the FDA, how they approve thousands of drugs that end up being recalled, or worse, killing people. Can you believe there are over 20,000 prescription drug products approved for marketing? Commercials list horror stories of side effects, and not the good kind like suppressing the appetite or reducing the appearance of wrinkles. I remember thinking, how on earth did that drug ever pass clinical trials?

The pharmaceutical business is just that — a business. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying everyone associated with creating and/or approving drugs for marketing is only in it for the cash but the yearly billion-dollar-budget pharmaceuticals pay to those who regulate the drugs they’re peddling seems a bit self-serving, don’t you think?

Take the latest push to sell QUVIVIQ, a drug that purports to help with insomnia. Actor Taye Diggs has the affliction (as do I, which I blogged about last Sunday). In the commercial he talks about counting sheep and listening to white noise and nature sounds, all to no avail.

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