FDA is "not only ridiculously underfunded for its challenges, it lacks the basic authority to require doctors and hospitals to report 'adverse events,'" including deaths or injuries potentially caused by drugs or other medical products regulated by the agency, a... Los Angeles Times editorial states. The Bush administration in its fiscal year 2006 budget proposal requested $33.4 million to monitor the safety of prescriptions drugs currently available to consumers, "a pittance next to $12.4 billion for the administration's war against illegal drugs," the editorial states, adding that the "federal watchdogs standing guard for consumers" are "more Chihuahua than Rottweiler." According to the editorial, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) this week are expected to introduce a bill that would separate the Office of Drug Safety -- the FDA office that reviews drugs once they have reached the market -- from the Office of New Drugs, which first approves the safety and efficacy of drugs. However, the bill "will go nowhere" unless Senate Health Committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) "schedules it for a vote," the editorial states. Some critics have called proposals such as Grassley and Dodd's "overcautious, a reaction to recent problems with popular drugs such as Vioxx," the editorial states, concluding, "It's hard to buy that charge regarding a bill that would only give some needed freedom to the watchdogs" (Los Angeles Times, 4/26).

FDA

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View drug information on Vioxx.